Yesterday as we drove down a street near our house, a tall man with skin nearly the shade of Owen's passed by and waved at him. Owen waved back and then commented with some interest, "That man had a black face!" I chuckled and assured him that the man must also have an entire black body just like he does. At that Owen sighed and said seriously, "I wish I had a friend with skin like me."
The parenting moments that take your breath away are like that - they come so unexpectedly and stab you with a quick pain before you even know what happened. I was glad that Owen's next statement was something about Ian and Alec because it opened to the door to reassuring him that in a few years his brothers will be older and much more like friends than babies - and they do look like him. Owen has expressed before that he is glad for that.
My sweet boy. I love him so much and try to be sensitive to his feelings yet I am ever aware that there are nuances to his life experience that I will never be able to fully understand. If anything, I am reminded to pray and pray and pray ... you would think a mother doesn't need that reminder but all too often I find myself lacking in serious and sincere prayer for my children. May I be much more faithful in this, Lord!
The parenting moments that take your breath away are like that - they come so unexpectedly and stab you with a quick pain before you even know what happened. I was glad that Owen's next statement was something about Ian and Alec because it opened to the door to reassuring him that in a few years his brothers will be older and much more like friends than babies - and they do look like him. Owen has expressed before that he is glad for that.
My sweet boy. I love him so much and try to be sensitive to his feelings yet I am ever aware that there are nuances to his life experience that I will never be able to fully understand. If anything, I am reminded to pray and pray and pray ... you would think a mother doesn't need that reminder but all too often I find myself lacking in serious and sincere prayer for my children. May I be much more faithful in this, Lord!
1 comment:
Sophia recently expressed the same sentiment to me when we were discussing kindergarten teachers for next year. She said, "I don't care which teacher I get, I just hope I have a friend who looks like me in my class"
I actually put that on her teacher request form. Our district tends to divide up nationalities, so each class is "diverse" which makes sense. Unless you only have 7 black girls and 7 kindergarten classrooms.
We'll see what happens!
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