I am “Mommy” to two daughters.

Our oldest is four. She is tall and gangly like her daddy and is often mistaken for being five. From day one she has been Miss Independent. She only needs snuggles if she’s sick. She also decided on her own sleep schedule as an infant. She rarely slept for more than two hours at a time for her first fifteen months of life and gave up naps before her second birthday. She takes a quiet time every day while her younger sister naps and will play by herself for hours, imagining her hair clips are princesses in distress who need the help of Supergirl to save them. She’s intelligent and silly, girly and a lover of excavators.

Our second daughter is two. She is also tall, but a sturdier build than her sister. She is not Miss Independent. That is, she is not Miss Independent until you try to wipe her face, comb her hair, help her in her car seat or get her rain boots on, then she juts out her bottom lip, crosses her still-pudgy arms and glares at you from the corners of her eyes and says, “I need to do it myself!” But apart from the independent-two-year-old dynamic, this girl is a snuggle-fiend and doesn’t leave my side unless it’s absolutely.necessary. She fiercely loves. The only time she is not affixed to my leg (or lap) is when she’s sleeping. Thankfully, from day one, she was a much better sleeper than her sister, guaranteeing me an hour and a half break each day.

This weekend she decided to give up her naps, nearly to the day I started my draft.

I read this paraphrased version of Esther 4:14 this morning:

Perhaps this is the moment for which you have been created.

Now, I’ll never say that my situation compares to Esther’s. I hold no life or death situations in my hand. But, I do care for two lives every day. And, as I’m tempted to be frustrated with timing, I have to remember that God knew that losing our youngest’s naps and the commencement of my novel would coincide. And, for whatever reason, He decided that I needed to remember (even more) I need His help to get through all stages of writing this story and raising our daughters.

I am a mommy, and I am a writer.

God called me to exactly this moment where these two vocations collide.