Sam's bday invite: I am laughing already...can't wait for the fun!

Sam asked this morning why we go to church. While we’ve explained this for years, the reasoning changes as he ages. And while we didn’t quite make it to church this morning (we ended up at the beach – oops!) we did make a concerted effort to explain anew why we do. Tonight I found a way to make it a bit more tangible when I showed him a picture of the rubble in a street in Haiti on my computer, then pointed to the words above: “Catholic” – that is the church we belong to – then “Relief” – that means help – “Services” – things like water and food that volunteers are bringing to people in Haiti. I explained that Mommy and Daddy gave money to CRS to help the many people of Haiti survive the earthquake. His big brown eyes turned to look me right in the eye and he said earnestly “Thank you for helping them.” Wow. My eyes filled as I said “You’re welcome, Sam.” Today I jotted down a couple ideas for Sam’s fifth birthday party next week and realized how fortunate we are to take this milestone for granted when 1 in 8 Haitian kids don’t make it to their fifth birthday. See Sam’s invite above for a preview of the fun 🙂