KIDS SAY THE DARNDEST THINGS...

I've been loving some of the things that have come out of my kids' mouths lately. A few weeks ago two large boxes of clothes arrived from CVM, our mission agency. They were full of donated clothes from Ex-Officio to be used by mission staff overseas. Many of them were kinds treated with a bug repellent chemical to repel mosquitos (quite handy for AFRICA). I went to work dividing the clothes and Lydia, age 5, immediately stripped so she could start trying on her new duds. She was giddy when she modeled her new cargo style hiker pants with long sleeved pink plaid bug-away shirt and cute sun protectant hat. (okay, she did look adorable!). She then gave me a big hug and said, "Oh mommy...thank you SO MUCH for taking us to AFRICA!" I said, "oh no, thank you for being willing to go along and be excited about it". She then told me, "Well, I actually didnt really want to go that much when you told us we were going...I was like, Africa...no!" I looked confused and asked her what changed her mind about it...(I'm thinking it will be a very spiritual answer like a word from God in her dreams or a lesson I taught them about helping the poor, or something likewise humanitarian). She points to her new outfit and says, "These clothes...they did it!" So there you go, sometimes for little girls all it takes is a new outfit to turn life around. The next week I was trying to read my Bible at the breakfast table and Nati came in to interrupt me for the third time and I said, "Nati, mommy really needs to read my Bible so I can have a good heart for today because if I don't get to do it, I really can't accomplish anything at all." About 5 seconds later Curtis starts calling my name from upstairs and Nati goes marching across the house yelling, "Shhhh...Cootis, mommy needs to do her verses so then she can do anything she wants all day!" I loved his re-interpretation of my need for Jesus. Some things as we prepare for our departure are so sweet that come from little Nati's mouth. I think he must be remembering more things from Ethiopia as we get closer to leaving, because he announced, in a very concerned voice last week while he was having breakfast, "mommy, you can take my green cup when we go Etyopeeuh because we don't have any cups there...oh, and water too, we don't have any water like dis." I had to explain that we will take some plastic cups and our house will have a faucet with some water we can filter so he will have as much as he wants. Later that week he got concerned about bathing...saying "there are NO bathtubs in Etyopeeuh." It must be hard for him to understand the kind of house we will be living in...no, it won't be like in America...but it will be very nice by Ethiopian standards. As we get closer to our departure...just 5 weeks from Sunday...I get weak in the knees more often thinking of all the changes that await our little family. But little comments like these from the kids remind me that life will still be familiar, even in this far off place, because they will be there with me, making me laugh and laughing with me at all the mishaps along the way. Now if I could just get through my list of to-do's in the meantime...