That time I was interviewed by an 8 year old.

An 8 year old asked me last night what my all time favorite activity was.

How is it that I couldn't think of it in that moment?

I listed my hobbies:  I love playing guitar, knitting, reading, road cycling, and watching professional cycling.  I love worshiping too...so decided that playing guitar had to be it.

She asked me a lot of other questions about me during dinner and shared her spunky sweet heart as well.

After dinner, we were driving to her house and deciding what to watch when we got home.

She asked if I liked Dancing With the Stars.  I explained that I have seen it a few times and did enjoy it but that I didn't have a TV at my house so haven't kept up with the show.

Her mouth dropped open - and stayed that way for quite some time.  Oh how I WISH I hadn't been driving and could have taken a picture!!   When she could speak again she asked cautiously "is there anything else you *don't* have at your house I should know about??"

It was a sweet evening that I enjoyed tremendously.

 ...it wasn't until she was fast asleep and I was driving home when I finally realized how I should have answered her first question of the evening.

Aren't our favorite activities supposed to be the ones that make us feel the most alive?  Without a doubt, my heart is fullest, and I am filled with life giving energy when I'm pouring into and enjoying young people.

It's why I teach. It's why I'd babysit for free if I could, why I'm preparing room to foster or adopt, why I spend late nights at school preparing papers that help me advocate for kids with special needs, and why I'm headed across the ocean to love on more than 800 Kenyan orphans. My favorite ALL time activity is being involved in the lives of children.  (It took a child to help me see that...)

For Mom, "moms" , and window washers.

I'm one who has avoided church on Mother's Day often.  Especially during the miscarriage years.  One year I risked the emotion of going.  The children were instructed to give a carnation to their mother.  One sweet little girl from my Sunday School class brought me a flower, and then another little guy came running up with a smashing bear hug (I was glad he was little, or I might have ended up flat on my back).  

I'm not a mother, but I play one every time I love a child with my time. 

So I'm going to be in Church on Sunday.  Two of "my" children are getting baptized, and the church is going to commission our trip to Kenya where we get the privilege of being Jesus with skin to hundreds of orphans by loving these precious, valuable treasures with our time and presence.  I'll cry either during or afterwards, and I'll be tempted to feel despair when I walk into the empty bedroom I have waiting for a child to foster or adopt.  But hopefully I'll rest in the arms of my First Love and in the knowledge that He is good.

PS - on a recent field trip we happened upon a diver who was washing windows.  The children were convinced he was going to be eaten by the shark in that tank and were cheering and applauding.  Knowing there was no danger, I marveled at how these wee ones were essentially applauding a simple chore - washing windows; and I asked where are the cheers when I wash the windows?  :-)

Happy Mother's Day to all the window washers, time givers, and to those like me who wait.