End of Summer

It's hard to believe that it's almost the end of summer. It's good because the days go quickly, it's bad for the same reason.

Princess is sleeping much better now - I can often get a four-hour stretch of straight sleep in at night if I ignore my husband and go straight to bed. She is also getting used to being put down, as long as I keep my face fairly close to hers: The light goes off, she looks into my eyes, yawns, her eyes get droopy, she goes out. Such a sweet baby.

My little one does not like me going to Princess in the middle of the night, though. Once she gets up crying for her bottle, he decides that I absolutely MUST feed him at the same time! Not quite possible in the dark, so my husband groans and "takes a baby" so that we can get them back to sleep with little incident. They do eventually fall back to sleep, which is great, though sometimes I wind up with a bit of insomnia, depending on how long the process takes. Also, there are at least two-to-three sessions a night, as the second and third sleep aren't quite as deep as the first. Still, it's definitely getting easier.

I was reminded of a story from my childhood today and wanted to share it on this blog. I think it gives some insight into my feelings for children in need and shows that these feelings did not crop up out of the blue. I'm also hoping that it leads to some tolerance for those who don't feel the same way as I do, as I was obviously raised by wonderful parents - they just didn't get it back then.

Apologies in advance, Mom and Dad! It's all for a good cause. :-)

When I was 10, I had had enough of Sally Struthers plugging the poor children of Central and South America on television and had cried all of the tears I was going to cry. I decided that I would sponsor a child through the Christian Children's Fund. I would save the world one child at a time!

I figured that my $10 a week could easily pay the $19.99 a month and confided in my older sister about my plan. After much pleading, she agreed to take my allowance money, deposit it into her account, and write me a check every month. I was in business!

I called the 800 number and was on my way. Soon I received a letter from "my child," who lived in Guatemala and wrote me lively letters in Spanish, which the Organization promptly translated for me.

Everything went great until Month 3's letter was intercepted by my parents. Were they bowled over by my charitable intentions? Hardly.

Dad: "I am NOT giving you allowance so that you can give it away to other kids!!!!" - Sorry, Dad, I just thought the other kid wanted to eat every now and then.

Mom: "They have our address??? What if they show up and rob us???" - Yes, Mom, the kid is 5 and has no shoes, but she will still somehow make her way over here from South America so that she can break into our house and rob us. Thanks for asking.

Still makes me laugh. But, this is how good people think sometimes. And yes, now that the kids I "sponsor" have family that live in our state, Mom is still afraid....! But I have also shown her that these children have a name and a face, and that we CAN help. One child at a time.

I'm sure that my Dad is looking down on me and smiling. Either that, or he's rolling his eyes helplessly...but I'd like to think it's the former.