Saying Goodbye To My Children

It’s not that 2 weeks is a particularly long time, but it is certainly the longest that I have ever left them.  My 13 year old will perhaps be excited by my departure.  I’m sure he will be anticipating his newfound freedom, all the candy he can eat, no showers, no homework, no room to clean.  Yes I’m quite sure his head will be spinning with all the wonderful things that he thinks he will be able to do when the source of all his troubles, namely me, is out of town.  He may be in for a bit of a surprise when he discovers I am not the only one in the world that thinks that showering and doing homework is a somewhat necessary part of life.  My 9 and 10 year old will miss me but I am sure they too will be considering what they will and will not be able to get away with when I am gone.  Always creative in their shannanigans,  I’m sure there will be a lot of….” but we always get to stay up till midnight on a school night,” and maybe just a little bit of  “but you didn’t tell us we weren’t allowed to take apart the T.V.”  My little ones will probably be wondering if anyone will actually get their milk when I’m gone but they seem to be o.k with me leaving as I have paired it with the promise of gifts on my return home.  I am trying to make this trip as powerful for my children as it is for me.  I spoke to them about how little other children in the world have and asked them if there was anything of theirs they would like me to take to Cambodia to give away to the children I meet.  Well they couldn’t bring me things fast enough and they even asked me to take a picture of the children with their toys so that they could see them holding their gifts.  My four year old daughter keeps bringing me things to give to Africa, and my 9 year old keeps asking if this or that toy would be good for CamboNia.  Well they might not be clear about where I am going but I think they are starting to understand that there are children in this world that need our help.  This year my children are taking part in helping to fill 100 Christmas shoeboxes.  Watching my children put brand new shiny toys that they would have loved into piles for other boys  and girls to have was wonderful.  I won’t deny I could see some of that longing in their eyes to have some of those wonderful things for themselves but even at those early ages they seemed to know that it was important to share these gifts. Now before you get the wrong impression of my family and envision this picture perfect gift giving session you need to now visualize my very youngest grabbing 20 shiny necklaces, stuffing them in his mouth, grabbing two footballs, and making a mad dash for the stairs screaming as best he could while drooling on the shiny beaded necklaces “Mine!. Mine!”  Anyway the long and short of it is I want my children to grow up believing that they have a responsibility to look out for those less fortunate than us . I feel that this is what God has laid on my heart and believe I have a responsibility to teach my children to look out for others, and I believe I need to teach them with my words, and with my actions.  In fact, I believe that one of the best things that may come out of this trip is what it says to my children about what we as a family value as important.

Having said all that when we were actually driving to the airport, Rachel was crying her eyes out in the back seat. I repeated to her why her mother was leaving….to see how we could help other children..to which she responded “I don’t care about he other children” I want you to stay.  Well that sure tore at the heartstrings, and as I looked at her wondering how I was going to do without her for 2 weeks I found myself  thinking again about the children of Cambodia.  How could someone sell their child.  I can hardly handle the thought of two weeks without mine no matter selling her into a lifetime of hardship.  Anyway I think the plane is landing soon.  I will e mail this when I can.