Monday, January 18, 2010

The reason there's no school today

Last week, Emma came home from school telling me that they had been reading lots of stories each day. Being a reader myself, I loved hearing that! When I asked what the stories were about, she first told me they were non-fiction - "That means they really happened, Mom."

She began telling me a story about a woman on a bus. She told me that this woman had dark skin, but that the bus driver tried to make her move to the back of the bus so a man with light skin could sit in her seat. The woman refused because it wasn't fair.

She told me another story about how "in the olden days" people with light skin didn't want to shop with people with dark skin, so there were certain stores made only for the "white people" ("because sometimes they're just called the white people, Mom"). Or that the "dark people" could only go in if there were signs up that allowed them to enter.

Another story was about a dark boy who didn't think things were fair. When he grew up he became a pastor ("like Daddy!") and fought for what was right.

After telling me a few of these stories, she looked at me with her big, brown eyes and said with disbelief, "Mommy, can you believe those things used to happen? It's so sad!"

I was a little choked up as I talked to her; I'm proud that she's learning the rocky history of our country and seeing the injustice of it all. She has a sensitive heart and I don't think until it was pointed out at school that she saw any difference in people and thought that some are treated differently. When I asked if the lady on the bus was named Rosa Parks, she gasped and said, "Yes! Do you know her??" I explained that I didn't know her, but that I know Rosa's story and the other stories that she shared with me. She was impressed and we talked about it a little while longer.

It was hard not to laugh when she shook her head and said, "It's just sad. It means you and Daddy wouldn't be able to shop at the same store!!!" Have you seen Gary? He's a California boy with a year-round tan, but I'm pretty sure we would have been able to shop at the same store. But, I'm glad she sees that those times allowed for some very unfair situations... to put it lightly.

So today at lunch we talked about Martin Luther King, Jr. and why there's no school today. And when we prayed we thanked God for giving so many men and women courage to stand up for what's right. I hope my kids follow the lead of the brave people from Emma's school stories and always do what's right and treat people fairly and with love. Because today is about a lot more than just a day off school.


Friday, January 08, 2010

Moving right along

One of my pet peeves is when after an unintentional blog break, bloggers reappear with a list of excuses why they haven't blogged and go on and on with "wow! I can't believe it's been so long!"

So I'm not going to do that.

I also am not going to backtrack and recap the last six weeks. Because honestly, I was so backblogged in my Google Reader, that as I went through skimming and clearing it out, I was relieved that most of the posts were Christmas related. Now, it isn't that Christmas isn't relevant year round, but I felt little guilt deleting all those Christmas posts since many were about Christmas crafts to do (a little after the fact now), Christmas traditions to start (file away for next year?) or stories of Christmas cheer (I'm no Ebeneezer Scrooge... but I'm ready to move on). So I'm not going to recap any of our Christmas festivities except to say:

Christmas did happen.
Emmanuel! God with us!
This year was so fun.

(It's even written in haiku form for your reading pleasure.)

And now I'll just update with a couple of important bullet points so I can move on with blogging:
  • I got a Mac for Christmas! I love it, love it, love it. It means that now I can blog from the couch. Maybe my blog posts will sounds more comfortable now.
  • I'm pregnant! We're due August 6th, just two days before Brody's 2nd birthday! So far so good, except I've been plagued with morning sickness... again. I'm 10 weeks along and past pregnancies indicate that I could have 4-8 more weeks of barfing fun. But at least it means everything is "working," right? We're very excited.
And thus concludes my first blog post of 2010. Happy New Year!