Faith LIke a Child

A couple of months ago, Aden asked Jesus into his heart. I hesitated to write about it on the blog, because somehow that seemed to cheapen the experience a bit. But I have often been impressed by his faith. Even before Aden asked Jesus to be his Savior, we began looking for opportunities to teach him about God, and how to follow Jesus. As he learned to pray, he didn't pray that sick people would get well; instead he would thank Jesus that they were sick, or thank Jesus for healing them. My first intuition was to correct him, "No, Aden. We can't thank Jesus for healing them because he hasn't done it yet. We have to pray that they will get better." Or, "We don't want to be thankful that people are sick." But I held my comments to myself. Instead, I began to stand in awe of his simple faith. Aden seemed to understand intuitively that we are to give thanks in all circumstances (1 Thessalonians 5:17). In Aden's mind, God was going to heal the sick, and we could go ahead and thank him for what He was doing. . . . Unfortunately, in time Aden "wised up." He soon realized that Mommy and Daddy didn't pray that way, and he learned to change his phrasing to match what he heard us saying - praying for people to get well.

Tuesday morning, Daddy told Aden and Wiley that Uncle Jim wanted them to pray for a little boy named Walter who needed surgery. Aden dutifully bowed his head and began to pray, "Jesus, thank you for Walter. I pray that you would heal Walter. Amen." (And Wiley echoed, "Amen.") As he looked up, I could tell by the smile on his face that he was confident Walter would get better. Later that afternoon, we stopped by the Radcliffes' house, and as we left I asked Kathy, "How did Walter do?" She whispered sadly, "He died." I wasn't sure if Aden had heard her, and didn't want to break the news to him. He proudly told her that he had "really prayed" for Walter that morning. "I did, too," she said. We left the house, but I was not off the hook. On our way home, Aden stopped and asked, "Mommy, what did Aunt Kathy say about Walter? Did he get better?"
"She said he went to be with Jesus."
"Oh. . . . Did he get better?"
"Yes."
"Did Walter die?"
With tears in my eyes I responded softly, "Yes."
"Why did Walter die?"
"I don't know, Aden. We don't always know why people die. Maybe Jesus was just ready for Walter to be home with him."
"But did Walter get better?"
"Yes, Walter has a new body now, and he will never be sick again."
We went on our way, and Aden did not seem sad at all over the news. Why did I think it would be so hard to talk about? To him, this wasn't sad news. Walter was completely healed and at home with Jesus. This morning at the breakfast table, Aden said, "It will be fun to go to heaven."
"Yes, Aden, it will be lots of fun."

Oh, to have faith like a child.

Excuses, Excuses

Some people have babies and children that are naturally good sleepers. These youngsters get tired and just nod off to sleep on their own. But not our children. Our children are fighters. Though Aden has always been a good sleeper (sleeping through the night at 10 weeks), he has also fought sleep from an early age. Wiley not only fights going to sleep, but fights while he is sleeping. We frequently hear him crying out in the night, sometimes in his sleep, and sometimes waking himself up, often throwing a fit about something in his dream that isn't going his way. Noah is probably an average baby, sleeping through the night at about 3 months (with the exception of last week when Daddy went to the Solomon Islands and Noah decided he rather liked waking up every three hours). Only time will tell how hard Noah will fight. With such strong will (I wonder where they get it!), when they are very tired, like all children, they can come up with some pretty creative excuses for staying up a little longer. Here are some of our favorites (all given after they are tucked in bed, of course):

"Tell me a story." "Sing me a song." "I need a drink." (The Classics - somehow all children figure these out at some point.)

"I think I'll need to sleep on the couch again today. It was so nice to wake up and have all these toys right here [the ones Mommy hadn't had enough energy to get cleaned up the night before], rather than having to get out of bed and walk all the way out to the living room." (Aden, after a night on the couch when he was sick, must have thought this was pretty special)

"We didn't read the Bible." (A twist on the classic, "One more book.")

"Can I just rest instead of sleeping?" (A favorite of Aden, since he is starting to nap less)

"But Mommy, if I close my eyes, then I can't see the books!" (When I told Aden he could read for a while, but then needed to close his eyes and try to sleep - he had been sick and really needed the sleep.)

"I need a diaper change." (Usually just a ploy)

"I need to ask you a question." (Questions such as "When I wake up, - or after this night - will it be tomorrow?" or "What are we going to do (or eat) in the day?")

And my personal favorite . . . "I need something to do." (Wiley came up with this one, as if sleep was not an option while lying in bed with the lights out.)

Mommy Flies Solo

Last week many of my friends posted "retro" profile pictures on Facebook, calling it "Throwback Week." Unfortunately Aden and Wiley misunderstood and thought it was "Throw-up Week." Incidentally, it was also the week Daddy had to go to the Solomon Islands, so I was on my own.

Last Saturday, less than two hours after Daddy left for the Solomon Islands (and before his plane even left the ground in Mt. Hagen, thanks to some drunks causing a delay), Aden threw up. He wasn't quite sure what was happening to him, and asked, "Mommy, what did I do?" I explained that he had thrown up. A few weeks earlier, when Aden had first discovered the bedpan in the boys' doctor's kit, he asked what it was for. "It's for throwing up," I had said. So Aden promptly threw it up in the air and looked at me as if to say, "And what good does that do?" "No, throwing up, like spitting up, like Noah does sometimes" (okay, Noah does that all the time). So, as I cleaned up the mess, I also seized the teaching opportunity and again explained the bedpan. Upon realizing what he had done, Aden apologized for spitting up, and for throwing up.

At first I misdiagnosed his symptoms as a simple case of the "Missing Daddy Blues." I should have realized it was more than that when Aden preferred a jelly sandwich over pizza for lunch the next day, but instead went so far as to scold him later that night when he didn't eat very much for dinner. "It's okay to miss Daddy and to be sad, but it doesn't mean we quit eating or sleeping." So Aden dutifully ate a bit more, and threw it up on Monday morning. Aden threw up again late that night, and ended up falling asleep on the couch. Which turned out to be a rather exciting adventure. On Tuesday morning he was quick to tell Wiley that he had slept on the couch, as well as anyone who happened to come by that day. He seemed to be better, only complaining off and on about a tummy ache (and sometimes using this as a good reason to need to sleep on the couch again), but by then it was Wiley's turn. About mid-morning Wiley lost his breakfast, and things quickly went downhill from there. Aden continued to have tummy pains off and on, and Wiley developed a fever. For the rest of the week, I spent my days attending to sick little boys, holding them when they were cold and achy, and cleaning up their messes. I spent my nights moving from bed to bed, comforting those with fevers, catching 30 minutes or an hour of sleep here and there in my own bed, cleaning up more messes, and getting Noah back to sleep (who decided that if everyone else was up in the night, he should be, too).

Aden seems to be better now, and though Wiley's fever is down, we are now working to make sure he can keep his food down and help him gain back the weight he has lost. We are all thankful that Daddy is back home, and he has already taken some of the night shift.