Sweet Memories, Fresh Laughter after Over Twenty Years

February 9, 1996: David (our exchange student from Germany) is leaving today, and he was just taking all his suitcases out to the van. Sarah asked, "How are we going to drive over the ocean?" I said that we weren't taking him to Germany, just to the airport. She said, "Oh, I'm so silly!"

(I don’t have this written down, but I definitely remember, when we were saying farewell to David at the airport, Sarah said, “Sad-bye.”)

February 14, 1996: Last night Sarah was playing in her bedroom. When Rebecca went out of the room, Sarah told her, "Close the door all the way so Rhoda doesn't come in, because she's crazy, and I don't want her to scare me."

February 16, 1996: The other day Sarah asked me what color my forehead was. I said white. She said, no it was yellow. Then she touched my chin and said that that was yellow. Then she said, "All your fur is yellow."

Last night at bedtime, Rebecca asked, "Why did God make nighttime so long?"

February 18, 1996: Our neighbor Gordon brought us a bunch of paper from cleaning out his garage this afternoon for the kids to draw on. When Sarah came downstairs, Murray showed it to her, and said, "Look what Gordon brought for you." He meant for all the kids. When I came down, Sarah and Rebecca were playing with the paper and Sarah told me, "I'm sharing some of my paper with Rebecca because Gordon brought me too much." She's very literal.

February 19, 1996: Tonight Murray was reading the Bible to the kids, and Sarah said, "If we're outside playing when Jesus comes, the real Jesus Who we can see, you know what I want to do to Him?" “What?” we asked. "Tickle Him," she replied.

February 22, 1996: The other night Caleb was laying on top of his bed. Murray told him to get under the cover. Caleb said no, he wanted to leave his bed made so he didn't have to make it the next day.

This morning Murray told Rebecca that tomorrow was my birthday, and she asked, "Does she know?"

March 4, 1996: Yesterday at lunch Caleb asked, "Mommy, do kitties turn into frisbees?"

This morning Sarah crossed her arms to hold my hand while we were praying. She said, "My arms are Xed."

March 5, 1996: Tonight Rebecca was reading stories to the other kids, and she was getting ready to read them The Three Little Pigs, and she said, "I'm scared of the wolf, but since there's lots of guys around here, I can read it." (We were all five in the dining room and kitchen.)

March 6, 1996: This morning I came upstairs panting after riding my exercise bike. Rebecca asked, "Mommy, what took your breath?" I said, "There are three kids in this house that I love; what are their names?" Rebecca answered, "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego." (The three Jews that Nebuchadnezzar threw into the fiery furnace because they wanted to worship the Lord rather than him.)

March 7, 1996: Yesterday we were talking about different seasons in the year. Then Rebecca asked, "When God created the world, what kind of weather was it?"

March 8, 1996: This morning when I turned on the light and woke the girls up Sarah said, "Mommy, you scared my eyes with the light."

March 13, 1996: Sarah wore a ponytailer in her hair today to school. It was still in when she got home. She told me, "I didn't mess with my ponytailer AT ALL!" But then she added, "But if I had, I wouldn't have told you, because I didn't want you to be mad."

March 14, 1996: Last night in the car, Sarah said, "Ow, ow." I asked what was wrong, and she said, "I'm stepping on my fingers. Ow, ow."

March 14, 1996: Tonight at supper, Caleb told us that, "A kid at school broke his nose off."

March 15, 1996: Yesterday afternoon, we had the first thunder storm of the year. Sarah asked, "What was that big noise?" (I clearly remember this. Her voice was so quiet and maybe filled with awe.)

The kids are playing a game right now that their kids were being bad, so they made scrambled eggs out of them and they're going to eat them. I told them that was yucky, that people don't eat other people. Rebecca said reasonably, "Well, we do in this game."