With five active kids spanning nine years, we kept plenty of Band-Aids on hand…big ones for knees, round ones for small scrapes and of course brightly colored Sesame Street and Winnie the Pooh strips in the early years. There is something satisfying as a mom to hug a sobbing child after a fall, clean off a scrape, carefully place a colorful band-aid on top then most importantly of all, kiss the “boo boo”. Tears forgotten, the child runs off to play again. Mom’s task completed, a job well done.

Our kids watch what we do, more than we think sometimes. One day, a friend was visiting me over at my house (or maybe I was at her house) with her youngest daughter who was about a month older than my oldest son. The two were fast friends from the beginning…they had to be as my friend and I met when pregnant with those two and often visited with each other. On this particular day, the two preschoolers, probably around 3 or 4 years old, busily played while we talked, sometimes in our sight and sometimes out of sight. At one point, our internal mom radars started signaling that we had not seen them for a few minutes and went to investigate. We found them perfectly well and with slightly guilty looks on their faces. My son had pulled out the Band-Aid box and had systematically put somewhere around a dozen multi colored strips on the little girl’s arms and legs… and as I recall, one or two across her face as well. It was one of those incidents in which we as parents tried to keep a straight face but inside were rocked with gales of laughter. We did have enough presence of mind after giving them a “talking to” to pull out the camera and take a picture. Fun memory.

If only life’s challenges stayed so simple. As the years go on, children grow to become young adults. Gone are the days of easy fixes…the falls now can be devastating and long term, whether emotional or physical.

A few weeks ago, in my September 22nd blog post “Falling off a Cliff Edge and Looking for Grace”, I wrote that I had just found out that my daughter had committed some serious thefts. I knew that charges were in process against her; this past week she was arrested and booked for 3 felony counts. I knew it was coming. One part of me is glad that she is finally facing the consequences for her actions. The other part of me just wants to give my daughter a hug and find a Band-Aid big enough to somehow “fix” this situation. I think I’m a bit numb.

The most innermost fiber of my being clings to a hope that there may yet be a happy ending to my daughter’s addictive behavior, however far into the future that may be. I heard my pastor say something tonight that I am going to hold onto in this situation:

“God is in the storm and He will accomplish His purposes in and through it all.”

I’m going to post this now, and then try to sort out my thoughts in a “Part 2”.