Laughter Amidst Trying Times

John was gone from 7pm on last night because of various responsibilities (number one, being, picking up him mom from the airport at 10:59). So, the job got laid on me to tuck both kids into bed.

I was late in doing this, however, as I was on the phone sorting through the ramifications of yet another fracture in relationships. Whether it's one of our pastor's leaving to start his own church (and hence some people leaving to join him) or the neighbor down the street's marriage, it's very hard to hear about. Sometimes the fractures are a result of positive God-inspired choices and just have to be worked through - and other times I don't believe God has been given the opportunity to be involved, and in those cases the consequences can be so sad.

So, by the time I got to the kids - they wondered what took me so long so I carefully, methodically (and age appropriately) told them a few things that were on my heart. Our kids have been so sheltered from bad events that I feel like we need to sometimes work through some of the struggles with them so they'll understand how to make choices when they end up in a pit at some point in their life - whether they jumped in or were thrown in - and understand WHO to turn to, to either get out or stay out in the first place. It was one of those rare times when I completely had Brayden's attention and I gather he'll remember the lessons for a long time to come. At the end, Mikayla made it clear that it's been a "hard day in Oregon" based on what I had told her and then hearing about "Joshua" (Traig's brand new water lizard) being so sick he had to be taken back to the pet shop and returned. Yes, honey, "hard day in Oregon".

Then, this morning, another circumstance happened with Brayden that had him listening to me tell him more information than a normal 9 year old boy would be mature enough to hear. (Has to do with body-stuff.....) I then said, "Boy, Brayden you're sure getting a lot of information that a kid your age normally doesn't get, are you sure you can handle all of this?"

He paused, looked at me, and said, "Yeah, I'm just like Chuck!"

(This had me laughing hard, but for all of you DWTS fans, you might not know that Chuck accidentally had the secrets of the country downloaded into his brain which throws him right into the spy-action world.... hence the fun of the show - and the wittiness of Brayden!)