Slow down!

Patrick has had an evenful month. No, not activity-wise. Life issues-wise.

We first started with an earthquake, followed by a (over-hyped) hurricane. He was very worried about those things, and kept asking us lots of questions, especially in the evenings, about aftershocks, tornados, etc. He gets to school, and on the first day, he comes home and starts talking about cancer. His teacher is suffering from non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, so he has a permanent substitute at the start of his year. They are praying for her, and the talk of cancer has come up, and he informs me that some people die from cancer. Fast forward 2 days: Mommy is in bed with fever. His first comment to me: "I hope you don't have cancer, Mommy." My poor little man. The next day, he hears about the anniversary of 9/11, and sees a clip of some of the tribute shows coming on. More questions, and he makes the connection of why we are at war, and why his uncles are deployed. More worries, more questions. Oh, and did I mention that we had an elderly friend of the family pass away right before the baptism?

It's so hard! I had no idea that he was going to have to learn these things so quickly, and feel the weight of how scary some of these things are. I know my kids have to grow up, but not now. And not with such heavy issues. I am praying for and with him often, and my prayer is that we can get through this without too much worry, and we all stay safe.