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| Paige & Noah |
There is nothing quite so entertaining as ideological, philosophical, and theological discussions with a couple of ten year olds and a seven year old.
The boys especially love to engage in long conversations that weave hither and yon. They're cholk-full of ideas and enjoy a chance to pontificate upon the deeper meanings of everyday life and some of the regular occurrences in Haiti. Most interactions are good for a snort laugh or two.
The other night we were discussing K, the young woman that died as a result of AIDS. Troy and I left to go tell her sister the news. The kids knew that is what we were doing and were anxiously waiting for us to come back home. They know the little sister pretty well and asked how the little sister was and how she dealt with the news of her big sister's death?
We talked a lot about the whole situation and how sad it is. We talked about how some cultural stuff led her to ignore the early diagnosis of the disease. Everyone listened intently and the they were somber as they heard about how our time talking to the sister went and thought about her loss.
Troy said something to the boys about not being able to control the outcomes and the choices people make but needing to love them anyway. He told the kids that the choices we make to love the people in our lives was one of the things we do have a ton of control over, even if the situations and the people were frustrating or difficult. Troy ended with some statement similar to, 'It is hard to always love other people but Jesus showed us that is what we should try to do.'
Noah thought about it all and we could see him ramping up to give us his two cents and copy his Dad with a word of wisdom. He said, "Yeah. That is true Dad. That is true. But you know what?!? You know what is REALLY really hard?"
(insert pause for dramatic effect)
"It is very hard to love people you've never met."
