Emotional

That could sum up my month. And I am NOT an overly emotional person. People give me a hard time for that all of the time; i didn't even cry when Eli was born. Just not who I usually am. However, it's been a struggle of a month for us surrounding various things with our little guy, none of which I'm ready to get into publicly yet. The only reason I bring that up is to point to the fact that I have shed many tears and been that girl that 'cries at the drop of a hat'.

Today I got emotional for an entirely different reason. And a very very good one. I hesitate to share it because it is so great to me that I fear it may come across as boastful. But it is also so amazing to me that I can't not share it because I know how much hope it gives me to read about such conversations other parents have with their kids, so share I will.

We've had a rough month, and last week we had a rough week, so today I planned as much fun, quality time with both kids as we could all handle. After playing this morning, bowling, and lunch at our favorite spot, we drove home from downtown. Rewind to thirty minutes prior to our drive, we were seated next to the sidewalk at the restaurant. Eli immediately saw a homeless man ten feet from him and noted that he was getting a drink from the trash. i tried to discourage further conversation about it at the moment because I didn't know how to properly discuss while this man was standing right there. Once we were in the car I brought it up again though.

I knew Eli was a little confused by someone drinking something he'd found in the trash. "Disgusting" is the word he used to describe the bottle of water. And why wouldn't he.....if (when) Maddux picks up a random bottle or spoon or anything off of the ground, or near the trash, that's what we tell her it is, and Eli hears all of that. I asked Eli to tell me what he saw, and he sorta nervously giggled as he told me he saw a guy pulling water out of the trash to drink. I told Eli that it was something very serious that he saw. We both know that is 'disgusting', but that man has fallen on some hard times and doesn't have enough money to buy water for himself from Costco, but he's thirsty. Thirstier than Eli has ever been during baseball practice. Eli had a serious look on his face by this point; he was totally listening.

I then went on to tell him that we are VERY lucky that Daddy has a job and that we have a house to live in, a car to drive, and food and water to eat and drink. I did my best to explain that some people get sick or hurt and can't afford to pay for a car anymore, which means they usually can't have a job anymore. And without a job, they don't have money for a house or food and water. I tried to use the example of our wreck this summer; I told Eli that if Daddy didn't have a job, we would not have been able to get a replacement car at that point. So on and so on....trying to explain that some of the people they see that don't have food or water or clean clothes have fallen on bad luck.

So THEN we move to what we can do for them. I reminded Eli that he can always pray for them...that is one of the best things he can do. But then I reminded him that it's not fair that we have money and those people don't; we are no different or better than them. Eli responded with, "Well I have a LOT of money." Pause. (I was starting to get nervous here...) "So I could give monies to ALL of the people in Atlanta that don't have enough money." Tears started to well. They almost spilled over because my little man went on to tell me that he wanted to bring bottled water to those people too, because we have some at home. Then he said, "I could give them some newspapers so they could find some coupons."

I'm not sure if there has been a time when I've felt more 'called upon'. Here we are talking about all of the things we should do, and why can't we do them now??! Given Maddux's state, we did need to go home to give her some down time. However, we have no plans for the morning, so I told Eli right then and there that if he wanted, we could get water and go down to Piedmont Park tomorrow to hand out water. He and Maddux were extremely excited to help out. I am proud of my amazing kids. And now I'm totally emotionally exhausted from such an amazing conversation.