But, I think everything is gonna be alright...

My husband and I are members of a Catholic church with a large congregation with lots of younger families.  To baptize your child at our church you have to attend a baptism class.  This is pretty standard no matter who you are or what you worship.  Additionally, the priest at our church happens to actually have a video and book series starring him and his puppet (yes, puppet, you read that right.)  So, for our baptism class, we basically had to drive to a fellow parishioner's house, sit in her living room, and watch some videos starring our priest and his puppet.  Easy enough, right?

Except that the baptism class was being held the exact night before I returned to work from maternity leave.  And it was so long.  And I could not focus on anything for the life of me because I was mostly worried about getting up in the morning and turning my Trust over to a stranger.

About 30 minutes after the class started, a woman (about my age) walked in with her husband and baby.  They apologized and introduced themselves, letting us know that they had five children.  I remember this woman.  Mostly because I was only 7 weeks into motherhood and already knew for a fact that I would never have the energy or motivation for five kids.  I didn't catch her, her husband, or her baby's name.  I didn't catch much of anything from that baptism class other than heart palpitations every time I thought about work.

Flash forward about 4 months and the recent betrayal of our Trust and my husband and I are frantically scrambling on Craigslist to find a new babysitter.  I saw one who had a picture of her and her baby on her ad (there's something about pictures on Craigslist that makes the whole thing so much more legit to me).  She lived not too much farther than our current babysitter, in a part of town that we actually hope to move to someday.  Her name was "Jade" (names have been changed) and she sounded very enthusiastic and sweet on the phone.  I laid out all of the details about our situation and she listened patiently, gasping at all of the appropriate times, and validating me every step of the way.  She asked where we lived in relation to her home and I told her we were on the north side of the town.  Jade said, "Oh, do you live near [name of our church.  I have three kids that go to school there."  Jade had two other kids who stayed at home with her, one was almost exactly a month older than ours.  She then shared that she was a former NICU nurse that decided to leave (because of the long hours and new baby) and work instead for an exclusive daycare center in a ritzy part of town.  Soon after, she and her husband decided that she could stay at home and run an in-home daycare.  Lucky for us, she had an opening, she charged the same amount per week as "Grace", and she was really excited that her 7 month old son would have a new playmate. 

Five kids?  Goes to the same church as us?  You'd think the bells would be going off in my head, but they weren't.  I was too preoccupied with everything that had happened that day.

We walked in her door later that evening and my husband immediately said, "I remember you.  When was your son baptized?"  Turns out this was the same woman with five kids that was in our baptism class and our boys were baptized on the same day.  Actually, if you look at a few of our millions of pictures from that day you'll see Jade, her husband, or some of her kids in the background.  Immediately, I got that mommy feeling that things were going to be okay.

And so, far?  It has been.  Her daily report sheets put all of my Type A craziness to shame.  They are so concise and I've never had a single question about how she's doing things - she lays it all out for me.  Her house is very clean.  Her kids are so sweet and adorable.  She follows everything to the letter.  She asked me to email her about how I'm making my own baby food because she thought it looked so good when I sent it with the baby.  And despite everything I went through with Grace, Jade has never made me feel like a crazy mess of a person for being worried or concerned about my son.

My favorite part is this:  My husband said that he put the baby on the floor next to Jade's baby and they immediately started "talking" to each other and smiling.  I could not ask for anything more.  I may have gotten peace of mind and the liberty to work outside my home, but my son got something even better - a friend.

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