Sunday, July 3, 2011

Patriotism

So Brandon is in such trouble. There have been no tears today. And he comes down from putting Easton to sleep and just has to prime the pump. Easton has been waking up a lot the last week. I am sure he is teething or something. But he just will not stay asleep. Last night was rough and tonight has gotten off to a bad start. While Brandon was up there rocking him for the fourth time this evening, people in the neighborhood started lighting off fireworks. We dealt with the windows rattling and the loud explosions until 1am last night (and yes it kept all three kids up at points). So Brandon was exceptionally irritated when it started up at 10pm tonight.

He came downstairs 30 minutes later with tears in his eyes (shhhhhh, don't tell him I told you that part). He told me about how annoyed he was. How he couldn't stop thinking about how hard it is to put a baby to sleep with all that noise. When suddenly he realized that in other parts of the world, there are fathers and mothers trying hard to put children to bed with the constant sound of gunfire or missiles or various other weapons exploding around them. The sounds are not sounds of celebration. They are not safe sounds. They are sounds that leave these parents wondering if their house, their family, their child will be the next ones hit. They are sounds that cannot be explained away with "it's just fireworks, you're just fine, get back in bed."

My prayers and thoughts this holiday weekend are for those parents who have lost sleep worried about the safety of their children in those areas of the world. And for the parents who have actually lost their children unnecessarily because of selfishness and politics. And before you accidentally think I am anti-war, there are also many thoughts and many more heartfelt prayers for the people who have fought and loved enough to make it so that my house is not in that circumstance. My children are sleeping. My family is safe. And tomorrow we just might light off a few of our own fireworks in celebration and memory of those soldiers who have or will put their life at risk so that my little ones don't have to.

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