this just needs to be said...

I mentioned in my last post that I've been doing a lot of babysitting. Many of the parents of the kids I watch don't understand why I don't say how much I charge and kind of just stare at me when they hand me a check and I don't even look at it before I stick it in my pocket. Money just doesn't matter to me. But it's more than that. 

A lot of weeks for me are about 65 hours, plus homework. And when I'm not at work or school, I am thinking about what I need to do or where I need to go next. 

Kids have this funny little way of making things very simple. And when I'm hanging out with them, I don't have to think about anything but how I'm only 2 spaces away from climbing the really tall ladder in Chutes and Ladders, or that a cow says "moo". And really, if I'm responsible for putting the kids to sleep,  the time after they are asleep is really the only time I get to watch tv or read or just hang out and not think about how I shouldn't be hanging out because I have so much to do. And when one of them looks at me and says "I'm really glad you're our babysitter. Can you come back?" or asks me when I'm coming to babysit them next or sees me somewhere and flashes a huge smile and whispers to her friend, "that's Kaitlin, she's my babysitter." -- it's nice.

This is what keeps me from having a breakdown. I have been known to get so unable to handle life that I quit Creighton with no plan and nowhere else to go, or I get such a bad stomach ache that I have to have a tube shoved down my throat, or I try working out the stress and can't walk for 2 days afterward, or...want me to keep going? But that hasn't happened now since about August/September. I do believe that's around the same time a certain church pastor asked if I babysit as well as I house-sit, and also around the same a certain small group started. Hm, interesting phenomenon...

I understand feeling the need to pay someone to babysit. I get it. And I've decided I'm not going to argue if someone just needs a sitter for the night. But if it's for anything that has to do with church, you'd better believe that I'm not keeping a penny. I'll either find some way to give it back by buying your children ridiculous amounts of sugar, or leaving it under your windshield wipers, or leave it on your coffee table...

By letting me do this for you, you are blessing me beyond belief. Believe that.