A Heart for Giving

Every now and again your kids do something that amazes you more than you thought they could. This week, Emmy and Lexa each had a moment like that. It was simple and humble, but showed me their hearts.

We came home from church last Sunday to a lemonade stand in our neighborhood. In hoping to see what the hub-bub was about, I read the sign to the bugs. The stand was set up by the cousins of a baby we have been praying for and I had the honor to make bracelets for. Her name is Haydon. She has Spinal Muscular Atrophy. Her life and what she can do despite her limitations is a miracle. Alexa squealed and could hardly wait to get in the house and change into "play clothes". She kept saying how we had to hurry so we could help Haydon. She grabbed her wallet so she could buy her lemonade with her own money. "We have to help Haydon". She repeated in her 5 year old way.

Later in the week we were talking about how apples grow in school. We cut an apple open to see the star and the seeds. We talked about how we eat the fleshy part and the seeds can grow into apple trees. Emmy's eyes got wide and twinkled. In her unassuming Emmy way she said, "Mommy! I know maybe we can send a bunch of apples to Haiti. Then they will have food to eat and they can plant the seeds and grow trees! Then they will always have some food!"

For each bug I thought, "Wow, I get to be YOUR Mommy." There really can't be anything better than that.

It sucks that we had to loose Ava. If we never had her or if she didn't have mitochondrial disease our family would never have experienced the love and support we did. If that didn't happen, our bugs would never know, first hand, how important it is to help those in need, to show God's love through community, to want to support others and give.

There can always be beauty among those ashes.