The things that ago on inside of a childs mind often catches me off guard. Today I found myself laughing and pondering and somewhat sad; all in a matter of hours. Not that those emotions in that time period are unusual. With 6 kids, I am constantly having to remind myself of the age of the child so that I can try to respond according to that child's mentality and maturity. It is a difficult thing to do and far too often I expect them to think like an adult and worse... to think like me.

Today started out with laughter. I had taken Elizabeth, Ri and Sara to McDonalds to play simply because I had a 1/2 hour to blow before the pharmacy opened up and I didn't want to spend that much time inside a store with two 5 year olds and a four year old who are completely full of energy when they are together! So, while we are sitting at the table and while Sara and Ri are off in the tunnels, Elizabeth started a conversation with me. Out of the blue, she says "I want to be a sister." I smiled and told her that she was a sister. She said, very adomantly I might add, "no... I want to be a big sister". She caught me so off guard that I could only laugh. With 5 siblings, why in the world would she want to be a big sister? There wasn't another person in that place besides Ri and Sara. It wasn't like she looked and saw a baby and thought about it. So I called Mark and laughed. He laughed too. Then he told me to tell her Sara was younger then her. I did. She (and SAra) were a bit confused at my response. But it seemed to satisfy her for the moment.

Then, at dinner time tonight, when everyone but Ri had left the table, she said to me "is my other mommy dead?". I try to take moments to talk to both Ri and Elizabeth about their birthparents. I think it is best to talk all they want to. One day, there will be so many questions and so much pain that I want them to be able to talk openly, without fearing that it will hurt us. For me, I kind of took it in stride and told her that we had no idea and that we hoped that she was not. Unfortunately we never go to meet her other mommy. She then looked at me and said something about her mommy leaving her on a bridge. I smiled and told her that, "yes, she did; but I am sure that she was watching to make sure she was safe and that someone would find her because I am sure that she loved her". I am really not sure where else we went in the conversation. She and I have had several. Ri wanted to know if he had another mommy like Elizabeth did. Now we have talked about his birthparents as well; but he must have just wanted to hear it anyway. I told him yes. He jumped up and down and asked if he had another daddy too. And that was just about the end of the conversation. Mark was in another room and heard the whole conversation. He came in at the end when one Elizabeth asked if God told us to go get her. He very happily said "yes, I heard God tell us". She was content with the answer and off they both went.