Apology NOT accepted

I was attending a meeting at our Presbytery office today with several other pastors from our quadrant to learn some things about what our Exec had discovered on his learning sabbatical. It was some pretty interesting stuff, not sure it will apply to our church, but I'm willing to learn more.
Anyway, there were 5 of us total and 2 of us were women. Both of us are moms. The other lady pastor is a few years older than me, and she's been in ministry about 8 years to my 1, but I've got a year on her of being a mom. Anyway, fairly close to the end of the meeting, she gets a note from the presbytery secretary that says her son has thrown up and she needs to come back and pick him up from child care. So what does she do? She apologizes profusely for having to leave early!! I'm like, sister, your kid is sick!! You don't apologize for being his mother or for taking care of him! I flat out told her, "M! Stop! Do not apologize to us! You have nothing to be sorry for. He's sick, he needs you. Get out of here!"
Please ladies--all of you who are moms and ministers (or any other kind of professional, really). Do not ever apologize for being a parent. (Same goes for dads too, of course, but they are much less likely to overdo the guilt I've noticed.) I think it helps me that I was a mom for three years before I got into the ministry. She comes first, always. I feel no guilt about this and I was upfront about this with my PNC, and they were all very supportive of that, many of them parents themselves.
So again I say, Sister! Don't apologize for being a good parent. Just stand up, look 'em in the eye and say, "You'll have to excuse me. I have a sick child to attend to." Thank the host and just leave! Be bold!

Hard to hear

When we were first married, P and I discussed the future. We thought we'd like to have a couple of kids: me, two girls (like me and my sister), him, one of each. I said I could live with that as long as the first one was a girl. I have no idea how to parent a boy, I told him. Well, many years later, we have a wonderful little girl; she'll be three this summer. So, it took me a while to feel ready, but I'm finally feeling the urge to have another bundle of joy soon. A sibling, someone L can play with and help be responsible for. I bring this up to P. I figured he'd say that we should wait until I find a call. I agree, at least to a point. (That is, I agree unless it looks like it'll take another year to find one.) But no, he says he doesn't think he wants another one. At all. Probably not ever. That knocked the breath out of me. I still have trouble breathing just thinking about it. I can't imagine my life without another child. I feel like I'd be cheating L out of the joy of having a sibling. I feel like our family would be incomplete. I also worry that if they're too far apart in age, they won't have a chance to be close to each other. (I'm not a child pschologist, so I don't actually know if that's true or not. But I still worry about it. It just seems like it'd be more like having two only children, rather than siblings.) So, I'm feeling rather heart broken these days. It's not a totally closed case, but it's still hard for me to imagine life with just one child; that's not how I ever envisioned my family. I really don't know what will happen if he decides that it's a final decision. Prayers for us all, please.