Monday, January 12, 2009

Fervent Prayers

Evan led us in prayer the other night at supper. His prayer was short and sweet: "Dear Jesus, thank you for the food. Next time won't you sing with me."

The other night Eli and Evan had a very hard time settling down after being tucked into bed. Kendall was supposed to get off work at 8:00, but wasn't able to come home until after 9:30. So it was one of the on-my-own nights. And it wasn't a good one. The boys talked and carried on in their room, then they complained that they couldn't fall asleep and that was just the beginning of the saga. Finally I said I would lie down with them for a bit. But once I settled down with Evan, he said he had to go poop. (Still a favorite trick of his.) So I went over to the bathroom with him. As I was waiting on him I could hear Eli trying to get himself worked up about something. He was talking to himself in very mournful tones and starting to whimper. It sounded like he was trying pretty hard to start crying. Finally, after working at it for awhile, he burst out in a wail. Evan and I went back into the bedroom and, trying to speak patiently and compassionately, I asked Eli what why he was crying. This was the moment he was waiting for. He burst out with great sorrow, "Because you get more letters than me!" Yes, he was very sad that I get mail more often than he does. And, no, trying to reason with him about how he gets way better packages and how he doesn't get bills did not help. And though my prayers asking for Kendall to walk through the door at that very moment were fervent, God chose not to bail me out this time.

3 comments:

Twila said...

Not funny eh?You have some of the sweetiest boys I know of.Dosen't make it easier eh?I know your a good mom and you have good answers for them, hang in there your the greatest.love ya
Mom H

Kirst said...

karen, i love reading your stories! i wanted to say that you and kendall are amazing parents, and i hope to be a mom much like you someday! :) i love you and i'm excited to see all of you SOON!
-love you all, kirst

Nathalie said...

I think there's something special about prayers/requests to the great unknown that medical workers come home from working at the hospital at a certain time/earlier than expected--they actually cause great trauma in the world. Because just at that moment of your prayer/request someone gets sick or has an accident and gets rushed to the hospital. Then your partner has to stay at work FOREVER. So not only did you cause great trauma to whoever the new patient was, they also returned the favor and now you're stuck at home suffering the trauma of a muy enojado non-letter-receiving young man (or sitting in the car waiting outside the hospital in DC swearing at every single person that comes out the door who is not your wife). In the end I find it's sometimes better to try to forget that your medical working partner is ever coming home at all, because then every once in a long while they'll surprise you and actually come home.

Longest comment ever.

Looking forward to seeing you guys in one week. And I promise to send more mail to help you avoid late night crises in the future.

Rod