Feel Good Friday, Just a Little Late

So yesterday, I was feeling good, so good in fact, that I completely forgot to do the post that I wanted to do.  We got to spend the whole day together as a family, something that we've started actually putting on the calendar to make sure it happens!  And it was grand, which makes me feel good.

But what I wanted to tell was a story that happened on the metro the other day:

If you've never been to Russia, which would include the vast majority of my readers, I'll explain a little bit about metro etiquette:  The ride between stops is rather loud and not conducive for conversation.  The time at each station is very quiet, but no one talks.  You don't really look at other people, either.  But then, there's Isaiah, my flirtatious little 4 year old sitting in his wheelchair, something of an oddity on the St. Petersburg metro (the wheelchair, not a 4 year old).

Our family was riding the metro the other day as we often do.  An older lady entered our wagon, and Thomas gave her his seat, which meant that she was now sitting between me and the spot where Thomas had "parked" Isaiah's wheelchair.  Isaiah did what he always does, he flirted shamelessly with the older lady.  She resisted for a minute, but that's about all that she could stand before playing with him, too.  When she saw me smiling at him, too, she asked if he was my "little one".  Naturally, I was proud to reply in the affirmative.

Then she asked if he was our first.  I said yes.  She began to say that it was probably a good thing that he is our only child because she thought life must be difficult for us and something about children being a lot of work.  (Not only was the train moving at this point, but she also was missing lots of teeth, which sort of hinders my ability to hear properly, so I'm probably not giving you the most accurate translation in the world, but that's the gist.)

You should have seen the look on her face when I told her that we are expecting another child!  I couldn't tell if she was horrified or just shocked.  After thinking for a moment, I leaned back over and said, I think children are our gift from God.

You could tell that it took her a moment to process what I had said, maybe because of the noise, maybe because of my accent, but I think that it was mostly because the concept was new to her.  Then she started doing the "blessing your socks off" routine that we've become accustomed to from the older women here.   She said a bunch of stuff that I couldn't understand, but one thing did stand out--she thought that we were different.

And that's part of what we're here for, isn't it?  To show the difference Christ makes in our lives.  While this interaction didn't bring an explanation of the gospel, I do think that it gave this older lady something to think about that she hadn't thought about before, and that's a very good thing.

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