New Hats

We have had a very exciting and exhausting week here, we all were given new hats to wear.  Everyone in the family, from the smallest to the “not small” received a new hat and we all love them.  Some people love the idea of a new hat and the recognition that it brings.  People greet you and say polite things to you.  The problem is that after a while the hat is not new anymore.  No one says anything when you wear the hat after that.  It just a hat.

If you love the hat because it brings you attention, then you are going to be in for a world of disappointment. If you love the hat, unconditionally, then it never mattered how people react to you because of it.  I know people who buy new things or take on new responsibilities, or even volunteer to do good things because of how other people will react.  I imagine that is a very sad and lonely existence.

You may have guessed that I am not really talking about hats.  I am talking about a wonderful, exciting and amazing new chapter in all of our lives.  Little Buddy has arrived!  Needless to say we are all excited beyond description.  I am truly at a loss for how to describe my feelings.  I can, however, describe my thoughts as I held him for the first time.  As he lay there sleeping and I was praying out my thanksgiving and quietly asking a blessing over him, my mind raced with all of the wonderful ways he was like me, and all the wonderful ways he was different.  It was amazing to see Sweetness and Coco and her parents and Beautiful and I all rolled up into that handsome little man.  You cannot help but wonder what this little person is like.  His preferences are there, we just don’t know them yet.  Is he a man of action, or a man of letters?  Is he a man of both?  Is he a chocolate or vanilla ice cream man?  Perhaps he doesn’t even like ice cream (I cannot imagine that, but it could happen).  Will he be good at catching chocolate chips in his mouth (yes there are certain privileges that come with this new hat)?  Maybe we should start with marshmallows.  They are better for training.

I cannot even begin to contemplate what he will become.  Those possibilities are just too varied to even begin to pin down.

What I do know is this.  He has two wonderful parents that love him beyond his comprehension.  He has two very LARGE extended families that love him beyond his comprehension.  It doesn’t matter what he likes or becomes.  We will all love him, just because he is.

That is how you love a new hat.  You love it just because it is, not because it does something for you.

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Mindcrafting

Parenting is all about shaping the eternal.  Like craftsmen, our goal is to bring out the very best in those little hearts and minds by putting the very best into them.  Each child we work with is a unique work of art that will last forever and will go on to invest in other little, eternal people.  It is an amazing process, but it is also a full time job because their little minds are constantly being exposed to images, and thoughts.  Some will be good, some bad, and others amazingly funny.

P.C. demonstrated this in typical P.C. form.  We are all (im)patiently waiting the arrival of “Little Buddy,”  that cute little bundle of love between Coco and Sweetness.  There has been all kinds of interesting ideas exchanged between the ladies about how to get the labor started.  I have no idea if any of them actually help, and I am not about to even begin to speculate about that.  That would sort of be like the pot telling the potter how to go about their work.  Even so, that did not intimidate P.C. from offering his own advice.  Partly because he is just P.C. and will offer ideas to anyone (even if they didn’t ask), but more importantly, because he had some valuable information to share.  He knew how this all worked.

Beautiful decided to take the “farm route” to school yesterday.  This was the inspiration that P.C. needed.  He informed Beautiful that he knew how to get Little Buddy out.  He told her, “Coco and Sweetness just need to eat, then kiss and then hearts will pop out of their heads.  After that, Little Buddy will come out.”  You see, that is how the chickens do it in Minecraft.

Yes, my son has his understanding of reproduction from a virtual Lego building game.  We will fix that when the time is right, but for now, that is close enough!  Our minds were created to know creation.  They do not handle a knowledge vacuum gracefully.  I am grateful that there was information there for him to work with.  Given P.C.’s creative thinking, I am not sure where that would have gone without his Minecraft knowledge.  I am glad I will never find out. 

In the constant struggle to shape their little minds and hearts, we sometimes miss things. That is why it is important that we think about how to reach and grow our children.  We would like to miss as little as possible.  As a parent, it is comforting to know that Minecraft has my back.

And, yes, we are still (im)patiently waiting Little Buddy’s arrival.