Unessential

There is something that just hits you like a punch in the stomach when you get a form email from your employer that you are considered to be unessential. I always thought I was immune from this, having chosen to serve my country 24/7 for 20+ years, sacrificing time from my family, deployed over holidays. So just after midnight tonight  I may be furloughed. Without television or radio, I will not know. Thankfully the children will be tucked under their blankets and we will have just finished Shabbat dinner, which tonight for dessert will be a specially requested, very delicious tiramisu....yum!!! We have made the menu milchig solely to accommodate this luscious dessert.

The most beautiful part of last night was when my husband posted for all the facebook world to read, "My wife has been declared unessential. Boy are they WRONG!" He sure knows how to make a girl's heart melt. And that is when I realized, who cares if the machine on the hill thinks I am unessential because to my husband and the five little ones under this roof - I am essential! So tonight at the Shabbat table, with the candles flickering, I will remember how blessed I really am, and perhaps this little furlough will give me a few more days to spend with baby Yair to whom I am truly essential.

Shabbat Shalom!