My brother, Mike, who is a Marine was deployed to Iraq a couple of weeks ago. Please be praying for his safety. The girls and I had a conversation about him that went like this:
Ella: “Mom, can Uncle Mike come with Grammie this time?”
Mom: “No, He’s in Iraq, far, far away.”
Ella: “Did he take an airplane?”
Mom: “Yes.”
E: “Is he somewhere dangerous?”
M: “Yes, he’s in a war. It would be good to pray for him whenever we think of him. We can pray for him right now. Would you like to do it?”
E: “Sure. But you say the “Heavenly Father.”
M: “Ok. Heavenly Father…”
E: pause
M: “Are you going to pray?”
E: Nods. Pause. “Oh! Let’s start all over!”
M: “Heavenly Father…”
E. pause
M. “Are you praying?”
E. “I want you to say ‘Uncle Mike.’”
M. “Maybe you should try doing the whole thing by yourself. I’m not sure what you want me to do.”
E. “Ok. But everybody be quiet. Mom, go look at the stove. Don’t close your eyes.” Whispering: “Heavenly Father…(to Mom) But you can keep doing things. Maybe look at the flowers. That would be a good surprise for you. Lily, you have to be quiet.”
Lily: “I want to talk to Dessa and say , ‘shh.’”
E: “Dessa can make noise. I’m OK with that.”
M: “If you don’t want anyone to hear you, you could say it in your head.”
E: “Ok, but I’m not going to pray for our snack. That’s too weird.”
M: Growing impatient, finally realizes that if she were a disinterested bystander, this would be pretty funny. Goes to computer to type, on the way hears:
E: “Heavenly Father…wait, I’m going to eat a couple of marshmallows first.”
A few minutes later…
E: “Mom, I prayed for Uncle Mike AND our snack! Two things.”
So, Mike, if you get the chance to read this, you are in our thoughts, prayers and conversations often! We love you!
Here are some pictures of our trip to Bend. We stopped at the Redmond Air Center where Bob did his rookie training for smokejumping. Our family is standing outside one of the planes Bob has jumped out of. The second picture is in the chute well, where they hang and check the chutes. The girls loved this room because Bruce (our tour guide) could make the chutes go up and down in the tower. The third pic is inside the plane. The girls found a funny funnel thing with a hose on it attached to the wall and as they were going for a hands-on inspection, Bruce jumped in front of them and said, "no, no, no... You don't want to touch that!" Can you guess what it was?
Here is our really great hotel room.
