This past Sunday was Mother’s Day, and, being the sweet, kind, and devoted husband he is, Josh booked a babysitter, planned a date and bought me a gift. 

It seems that God had other plans for us, and over Shabbat our routine colds collected from gan got worse. We hopped over to the doctor and a quick assessment had us both diagnosed; me with a sinus infection and Josh with strep. So instead of a night out, we ventured out to get antibiotics. 

Quick and important background being that we live on a yishuv (roughly, a small town) with no pharmacy and we don’t own a car. So the venture to pick up our medicine wasn’t a quick 15 minute in and out trip, but a long, multi-hour journey. 

All four of us ventured out and just as the bus was about to leave the yishuv, it broke down. So we walked to a different stop and boarded a new bus that required a transfer. 

We thought everything was going smoothly until five minutes before getting to our destination, our baby threw up all over Josh. There we were, trying to mop up baby vomit on a moving bus while also reassuring our toddler, who asked why her sister threw up. By the time we got off that bus, we were exhausted already. 

But we needed to get our antibiotics. So coughing, sneezing, and lightly coated in baby vomit, we made our way into the bright lights of the mall to get to the pharmacy. After a multi-hour, and three-bus journey, we spent maybe ten minutes in the mall before we were ready to leave. So we fended off a toddler meltdown over ice cream and waited for a bus to take us home. It did, but not before our toddler fell asleep, our baby vomited some more, and we took off all her clothes so she wouldn’t overheat. You can imagine the sight of us coming off the bus: sick, tired, covered in vomit, hobbling home pushing a stroller and holding a baby wearing nothing but a diaper. We looked less like a family coming home from the mall and more like survivors of a minor natural disaster.

So instead of the planned date night, we ordered in food, cleaned ourselves up and realized that somehow we forgot to get milk when we did the shopping earlier. 

Honestly, that’s pretty much what Mother’s Day is all about anyway: spending time with our kids and rolling with the punches. Nothing 5-10 days of antibiotics won’t fix.