Twas the Night before the Inauguration

I wonder what you do on the night before you are inaugurated as President of the United States. Maybe a fancy dinner, a speech somewhere to supporters of your campaign, a gala event perhaps? I’m not sure.

I do know I, for one, would have a lot of trouble sleeping. Excitement, nerves…the responsibility. Seems like the night before becoming President is, in some miniscule kind of way, a little like the night before you have your first baby. There too is excitement, nerves, the weighing of the responsibility of caring for a tiny new life.

And really, no matter what books you’ve read, no matter how much you’ve studied, no matter how eloquent your parenting knowledge sounds … nothing prepares you for it. Nothing. The baby comes and it is more wonderful than you expected and yet so much harder than you ever dreamed.

With my firstborn, I didn’t expect colic in the first 100 days of my parental administration. But colic is what I got. And although I counseled with good doctors, there wasn’t a cure. There was no quick fix…it was learn as you go.

And it was hard. Long days and longer nights. During one of those long days, I called another mom for advice on what to do for colic. She said….“well, first, have you prayed about it?” It was almost shocking to me. Pray about colic?? What about the experts…what did they say, what about the books, what was best for the baby?!? I mean, I’m sure praying was a good idea but, embarrassingly enough, it hadn’t even occured to me. I assured her that I would begin and hastily got off the phone.

And so back to my question of what you would do on the night before inauguration…an inauguration the whole world is watching….

I would ask you, President-elect Obama, the same question my friend asked me….“have you prayed about it?”