My Excellent Wife

Proverbs 31:10 "An excellent wife who can find?  She is far more precious than jewels."

I wanted to write about the love of my life, Joli.  She recently made me the father of my tenth child and she has to be the most incredible wife and mom alive!  I am here day after day and have seen the trials and the sickness that she goes through to have children and to think that she has done it 10 times now is phenomenal!  She started to get Intrahepatic Cholestasis of Pregnancy (ICP)  at 31 weeks of pregnancy.  What is ICP?  It is a condition where the bile in her body starts to back into the blood stream as opposed to being handled and discarded by the liver.  The bile builds and starts to cause intense itching, first on the hands and feet and then just about everywhere the further it goes.  After a while, it starts to make you feel as though you have the flu.  Basically, for the last 2 weeks of her pregnancy, Joli slept maybe an hour or two every night.  She was miserable.   Our poor dogs have suffered from fleas terribly this year and she cried out at around 3 in the morning a few weeks ago and said, "When this is all over I am taking our poor dogs to the vet to get rid of those fleas!"  She definitely could relate. 

So after 4 weeks of itching, Micah came and thankfully the ICP has started to go away as giving birth resolves the sickness.  Now she is staying up at night for a different, much better reason.  She is so amazing!  She gets probably 3 broken up hours of sleep a night in between nursing and changing diapers, but she does not complain.  I'm not saying that she can't get a little grumpy because of lack of sleep but who doesn't.  She presses on and loves every minute of it.  She tells me frequently that she absolutely loves this age, the smell, the cuddly little baby. 

I am staying home from work for two weeks to take over school and manage the home while she nurtures the baby and heals herself.  One thing that I can declare is that I have the easier job.  Hers is unpaid, at least monetarily, but what she does, day in and day out, is priceless and could not be afforded by the wealthiest of individuals.  I get to come home from work every day and leave it where it is while Joli stays where she "works" 24-7.  Thankfully, she has never considered it a job, but a calling and one in which she is very good at it. 

I am so very thankful for you Joli.  God has blessed me with a jewel and a crown on my head.  You are the love of my life and an inspiration to me!  You're my "sweet pea." 

Sean