This morning when I went off to work, my daughter was still sleeping at 7 am. There was no need to wake her up because she is not going to school today. She’s not feeling well since yesterday, colds and a little bit of coughing due to climate change or dust at the park where we went or simply she caught a virus at school. The meds she took made her sleep early last night.

I kissed her goodbye and thought about her all day. I went home as fast as I can and as I entered into the front door, I was ready to hug her.

Our house was exceptionally silent. Silent like no toddler living there. My mother who stays with my daughter the whole day was in the kitchen cooking dinner and told me to lower down my voice. My little girl is asleep at 7 pm!

I asked what happened. My mother said maybe the meds are making her more sleepy and she had not taken her afternoon nap. My daughter is just there, comfortably lying on her bed, in fetal position hugging her pillow. Oh how sweet to look at her I quickly forgot it’s past my dinner time. My stomach has growled on my way home but now it didn’t seem to matter anymore.

I lay down next to her and just marveled at God’s gift to me. That moment, tears came down my eyes for reasons I can’t really express. I missed her just like that.

I hugged her and felt warm all over. She was sweating a little. I wiped her sweat and snuggled some more. “Mommy’s here.” Of course I got no answer except for a small grunt. Clearly she was busy seeing dreams and going to places, meeting lots of friends in dream land.