Share in the Suffering?

Awww babies! Specifically my babies (not really babies because they are six and seven). Our family has certainly been going through some hard times. Daddy was laid off from a job in November. This came as a total shock and surprise to us. My husband has gone through a grieving period and self pity at times. I have gone through bouts of anger and sadness. BUT through these periods of emotions, both of us have felt increasingly blessed! Tremendously blessed! God has used people that we don't even know and those who don't have much themselves to bless us with material provisions. But our babies. How have they fared through this time? Do they feel the same emotions that Paul and I feel? I didn't think my children were being effected...however, I was so wrong. Last week, our son was sick. For the first couple of days he was out of school, he truly was sick w/ a bad cold. But the days kept dragging on. By Thursday, we told him that he must go to school, but after the second trip to the school office, they called us to come pick him up. So, my husband and I spent a lot of time w/ our son on Friday. Really trying to get to the root of what was bothering him....was it something at school, was it someone picking on him at recess, was someone hurting him...All we could really get was that at recess "they" were mean to him. After talking w/ his teacher, we really didn't feel this might be what was bothering him. So we came to the conclusion that daddy losing his job was worrying him but he didn't really know how to express this....so it was being expressed in a "stomach ache", big crocodile tears when we told him he had to go to school, and expressions of missing his daddy. So, at dinner last night, we sat down at dinner and had a talk as a family. We really tried to explain what was happening and that even is the very worst case scenario we would never, ever be without a place to live or food to eat. We also talked about all kinds of people that God was using to bless us in this time- people we sometimes don't even know, people who really don't have any to give but are anyway and also how God has placed us where we are for this instance so that we have access to a food bank and tons of support. It became evident in our conversation that our son was truly worried about our situation. We talked through how we had savings to use and our son offered up his savings. How precious!
We thought this had given him some peace but this morning the "stomach ache" and the crocodile tears started up again. So...I think this is going to be a process. I feel really bad that my husband and I didn't think earlier how this may be effecting our babies! How our comments although made innocently enough like "we can't afford that right now" or "once daddy gets a job" were causing stress and anxiety in our little 7-yr. old. Sometimes we can be so dense as parents. I can only pray that now we have discovered how this is effecting our son, we can in the future be more up front when our family is facing difficult situations!

Finally!

Yes, I have been absent from blogging for some time. I have no excuse except that life is crazy busy! School, new job, parenting, crazy! I'm back now with great things to say! :)