a moment of holy

On Sunday night, after dinner, Jason went off to a meeting and the boys and I lingered around the dining table unsure what to do with the hour or so we had remaining before bed-time. Unintentionally, I picked up a piece of mail from Compassion International and started opening it. In it, there were updates about two of the children Jason and I sponsor from Indonesia and Burkina Faso. I laid these updates on the table, not really thinking about them...until Collin asked, "What are those? What do they say?"

So I sat down and introduced my children to those two children from Compassion. We took out the map and we found where the countries were located. I told my kids that their grandma grew up in Indonesia too. We started reading about the country conditions where these children lived. We learned that the mosquitos in Indonesia often carried diseases (like malaria) - and people sometimes don't have money to get help from a doctor. We learned that Burkina Faso often has drought - where there is not enough water to grow food (like our tomato plants outside) and children often go hungry and are "malnourished" (that one took a while to explain). We saw pictures of the children's classrooms and pictures of their neighborhoods.

And then I suggested we pray together. Collin prayed for Indonesia - for God to protect the children from mosquitos with disease, and for sick people to get help from doctors. I prayed for our sponsored child in Burkina Faso - and for the drought and malnutrition there. We all said Amen, and then we went to the living room to play.

Who knows what really sunk in for the kids...but in those few minutes when we sat around the table, asking God to help and to bless, I do believe there was a moment of holy.

a little bit of courage

Yesterday, I took Collin to his first "drop off" swim class - he was super excited, I was a bit nervous, especially after they told me that the class was going to be in the normal, adult pool and not the kiddie wade pool. What? But sure enough, with just a little bubble floater on his back, he joined the class and "swam" (with a kickboard or noodle and the instructor had to help him quite a bit) several lengths of a normal-size pool! What was cool though - despite me holding my breath and smiling like I was totally comforable with my little non-swimming 4-year old in the deep end of the pool (the instructor was there and there was also a life guard around, but still!) - was that I could see he was scared too, but mixed in with his look of fear was, I think, a bit of determination. He stuck it through - finished the class, looking slightly uncomfortable the whole time, and then came out with a big smile. Later that night, as we told his dad about the class, I explained to Collin that what he experienced yesterday was courage and hard work, and I was proud of him. It also made me realize that as he gets (just a little bit) older, his milestones are changing from purely physical/cognitive developments (crawling, walking, talking) to more subtle (but oh so important) character developments. I suppose this is obvious, but it was still a bit surprising for me. It took us awhile to explain courage to him - not just doing things to be brave, but choosing to do good things, even when it's a little scary. Not sure if he really gets it, but the "proud mama" moment was definitely a milestone for me. :)