If His Eye Is On the Sparrow

Owen’s nap turned into three hours of happy play time in his crib this afternoon and I didn’t actually sleep either but both of us were quite good and I only had to be told to stop whining once. Owen didn’t whine at all and Kris and I were quite shocked at how well behaved he was all afternoon and evening. When dinner was over Owen was eager to brush his teeth so we marched upstairs where I promptly changed him as well so that he would be ready for bed in the next half hour and could be laid down without excess fussing. He played very happily until 7:30 and then I announced bedtime. Oh he was sad. So, so sad. I decided that as he was so tired from no nap I would try to make things a little easier and sit with him and his Tigger doll in the rocking chair for a little while. He sat so peacefully and though he didn’t want me to sing any songs to him…it was perfectly fine to sing to Tigger, which I did. While we were sitting there we were both very startled as the blinds from the window directly in front of us came crashing to the ground for no apparent reason at all. I screamed and Owen froze for a second and then began to wail in fear. I held him closer as Kris rushed in to see what the commotion was. Once I had calmed Owen down and we had assessed the damage and what needed to be done about it, I took Owen back to his room and put Tigger in his bed and then held him some more. I felt bad putting him down right after he had been frightened so badly and asked him if he wanted me to sing some more…he said no. Then I remembered how when my younger brother and sister were little my mom would pray for their dreams at night. So I asked him if he wanted me to pray for his dreams…he said yes. So with his sweet little head on my shoulder and his warm cheek next to mine I prayed for his mind and his rest and for good and pure dreams to come to him at night. I said Amen and waited a bit to see if he had possibly fallen asleep. In a matter of seconds I heard…”more pray.” So I asked him who I should pray for and he said Chloe. So I prayed for Chloe and Halle and Amanda and all of our house guests and then I prayed for all of his cousins and just about anyone I could think of. I said Amen again and told him it was time to lay down. He started to cry again but I said to be very still and quiet and talked a little about tomorrow and what was going to happen. He was still whimpering but managed to say pleadingly…”Chloe.” I asked him if he wanted to see Chloe and he did so I told him that he would see her in the morning. He was still whimpering so I said…”do you want to dream about Chloe?” He said he did, so I told him to close his eyes and think about Chloe. He stopped crying and I haven’t heard a sound from him since.

What was really comforting to me about this story was the fact that Owen had been playing under that window this evening, both of us had been putting his toys away there and before that, he had been standing at that window watching the storm but he was not under them when they fell. He is always messing with those blinds so that he can see outside and if they had fallen while he was beneath them he would have certainly been hurt. In fact, they punctured his favorite toy…his “beacha ball” so that it almost immediately deflated (another source of tears) and will have to be patched. The blinds are the two inch faux wood blinds and are pretty heavy. Thank God for His protection.