Thursday, April 01, 2010

The Truth

There is something that stopped me in my tracks the other day and I've been contemplating it ever since. One of my kids informed me that he was "starving, mom." And I started to admonish him that he doesn't know what it means to be starving and then I stopped. The truth is, he may actually know - it's me that doesn't. It broke my heart.

There are children all over the world that are starving every day - at least one of my sons (and possibly both of the olders ones at some point) know what that means. It doesn't matter if they remember it or not, the fact is that it's part of their life story. So no, I won't, I can't tell them that they don't know or understand - those words are for me and my privileged life.

My eyes were opened a little more.

4 comments:

Jennifer said...

Wow Alaina. That was an arrow to my heart that put tears in my eyes. You are so right.

B.D.Riehl said...

Oh my. What a moment that must be as a mother. Thank you for sharing and opening my eyes as well. It's all too often I say something foolish like that without thinking.

Stephanie said...

Oh Calvy...how we love hime and are so thankful he (and P) were brought out of that and into our family! You made me tear up here just thinking back to when the boys came home.

Kjersten, Steve, Aitugan & Nurai said...

Wow is right. Certainly makes me take pause for a moment. It's easy for me to get caught up in the day to day and 'forget' that the girls haven't been in our lives forever. Even though it's obvious and not really something that I forget, sometimes it takes a moment like this to make one really take pause and truly remember. Thank you for sharing this experience.