I Love Them Differently

I love my children all equally, but I love them differently. I love them differently, in accordance with their personalities. I love different things about them, because of who they are. But I love them all the same amount.

For instance, I love Aphia because she can be so very bubbly, full of life and she has one of the most spectacular laughs I’ve ever heard. I love Isaiah because he is my little version of Jeremiah- so far. He is calm, laid back, and very predictable- my easy baby. (Although I do have to say, as infants, they’ve all been pretty calm and laid back)

I love my Jones because he says things like, “My hypothesis is that this bag from McDonald’s is mine, not Aphia’s. I’ll go upstairs and look inside to test my hypothesis!” What 5 year old says that? One that watches a lot of Dinosaur Train I guess. But I also love him because he is utterly sensitive. We sing this song about my cousin who is bald (that he taught them) that goes, “Seany got no hair! Seany got no hair!” One time Jonah told me that if he was bald, he wouldn’t want people to sing that song about him because it would make him feel really bad.

The other day, I mentioned something about adoption and Jonah asked what that was. I went on to explain what adoption was to him. I said things like, “Sometimes a mommy has a baby and for some reason she can’t keep the baby and take care of it. She usually loves that baby SO much that she wants a better life for the baby. She cares so much that she gives the baby to someone else, who she thinks will do a really, really great job at loving and taking care of the baby.” I wanted to paint a good picture of these moms for him. I then went into those who do the adopting, saying, “Then there are some people that can’t have babies for some reason and they get to adopt these babies. Or they just want to be able to help someone and love another baby so much. These people are so wonderful because they take those babies home with them and love them so very much. This is just like Sarika (Jeremiah’s cousin- adopted from India). Her mommy and daddy couldn’t have anymore babies, but they wanted another one very badly. So they adopted Sarika, so they could love her and take care of her and give her a wonderful life!”

I can tell that the wheels in his head are turning, turning, turning at this point! He asks a couple questions and I answer them accordingly, mostly about the moms who give their babies up for adoption (Again, I tried to paint them in a really good light for him, saying that they love their babies so much that they give them up to have a better life). He then sits for a while and starts to look very sad, almost as if he’s going to cry. He then says to me, “Ok well I guess when I get married, if my wife is ok with it, then we’ll give our baby up for adoption.” Oh my, oh my, oh my!! That was NOT what I was trying to accomplish!! My bad! BACK UP! No one is going to be giving up my GRANDCHILD!! ☺

I then had to re-explain a bit. I told him that I hoped he’d never have to give a child up for adoption and that when the time was right, God would give a baby to him and his wife and they would be able to take great care of their child and as many children as God gives them. He was much happier with that idea.

I love Jonah for his sensitiveness. For his selflessness. For his tenderness. For his giving spirit. For his desire to do what’s right. Wow.