Idol Gives Back

What a night. Jillian went to bed without a problem. I changed her, fed her and rocked her until her sweet little eyelids closed and she was content in my arms with her thumb securely stuck in her mouth. Gage on the other hand was a different story. We had our usual routine. I put Jilly to bed while Dave and Gage watch a Little Einstein's and then Dave puts Gage to bed. However, when Gage's body neared his mattress the distress scream sounded. After letting him cry for about 10 mins, I go in there. He is hysterical, sweaty and in desperate need of another Leo, which is what he called Little Einsteins. I say ok, so we watch the last 5 mins of an episode and then I take him to his room. We walk and sing and try to prepare him for the torture he is expecting...know to us adults as bedtime. When I go to lay him in bed it is as though blade are poking him in the back because he is literally trying to levitate off the bed. I leave, knowing his fine and just having a two year old moment. After 10 mins of crying....I mean screaming...I call my mom. We discuss how your head tells you to leave them in there, they are fine and will calm down. My heart and my stomach are telling me to go in there, bring him out, love the heck out of him, bring him to bed with me and snuggle all night. My head won tonight like it has so many nights before. But, the sound of your child screaming, even when you know they are safe and healthy in their crib with all the stuffed animals and blue's clue pillow, hits a place in my heart and it hurts.

How do the mother's feel who cannot provide for their children feel? How do the mother's in Africa feel whose baby, literally, a baby, is laying in a hospital bed suffering from malaria or HIV AIDS? What a gut wrenching, heart breaking, helpless feeling.

American Idol Gives Back.

It is a show I look forward to and dread. I look forward to seeing the celebrities, the dancers from So You Think You Can Dance, the singers and comedians. I dread because I see what so many Americans and Africans call reality. My reality is like many of yours. My house is filled with healthy people, Pottery Barn things and toys for the young and old. On Idol I saw a family in KT whose house is in shambles. The three sweet kids live below poverty line and they cannot afford, among many things, books. I thought of the shelves of books we have accumulated for Gage since his birth and how many of them now collect dust.

The most heart breaking part is when I see the families in Africa. For some reason I feel that because Africa is over an ocean away, that the people there somehow don't feel like we feel in America. Maybe the distance causes their hearts to break less when their parent or children die. Maybe they don't yearn for the power to help their loved ones. Maybe what they go through is somehow less horrible because they are so far away. But they do hurt. They do die. They do grieve. Children are raising children. I think of Nathan, my nephew. What if he were in charge of raising his brother Josh as well as Gage...in Africa that is less absurd and more of a reality. How horrible.

How must God feel as He looks down at His children in need? How must His heart break over the deaths and abandonment?

What about today? What about now? Those are some of the questions in Daughtry's song. I know that today I will give to Idol and I hope you will do the same.

But what about tomorrow? Will I go back to driving my SUV with my two kids back and forth to my nice mall and my beautiful home? I will. And so will you. But, what can we do in the midst of our lives? I challenge you to look for opportunities to give back. Find someone to help, someone to reach out too. Keep your perspective realistic...

We have...Others need.