We had a thunderstorm blow over last night. To put it mildly, I am not a fan of storms. My parents can tell many stories of me climbing into bed with them at the first sound of a far off rumble. As I got older, it was not “cool” to be doing that sort of thing, so I would pull the covers over my head and wait. If it was really bad I would crawl on my hands and knees into their room to huddle at the foot of the bed! Yeah, like that’s cool.
I began hearing the thunder last night around 8:30. J was working late and I was waiting for his call to tell S good night before tucking her in. When we got the call it was almost 9:00 and by then, the lightning was pretty close. I was trying to ignore the bright flashes followed by a loud “Ka-Boom” so S wouldn’t pay any attention to it. After “one more hug” and “one more kiss, Mommy”, I hopped in the shower.
When I got out, she was sitting at the top of the steps. “I’m scared. Can I sleep with you?” Oh, crap! Now I have to be the grown up.
As I cuddled with her in our bed I thought it was nice to have someone to be scared with. We talked for a little while about how to have “good thoughts” and I took the opportunity to tell her that it’s times like this when we can call on Jesus to be with us and help us feel safe. She said, “yeah, and if its thunder, we’ll have to say it real loud”. :)