Adventures with Ahrens addresses homosexuality.

I was commenting on a Facebook mommy page that I was invited into this past week.  It was about sleep training your babies.  The majority of this group seem like young or first time mothers trying to figure out the world of babies.  While my children are still young, they are long past the baby stages.  We have a child that will be seven in less than two weeks, and one that just turned eight a month and half ago.  I felt so far removed from those issues, yet, I can remember, clear as yesterday, maybe clearer, the nights I would sit outside the room of my infant, crying for an hour, maybe longer, as I did the "cry it out" method.  I called my girlfriends, my mom, some nights- both, as I struggled through the first of many difficult choices I made on behalf of my family.

Today, I had a new challenge.  I wish I knew how it came up.  It just naturally appeared in the breakfast conversation, and for some reason, I felt badly about trying to sweep it under the rug and put it off for when they got older.  How much older do they have to be?  I remember reading our parenting "bible" ("Shepherding a Child's Heart" by Ted Tripp) and learning that the day your child fights you in a diaper change is the day you begin discipline and teaching obedience. Well, no time like the present.  It came up, so they must be ready.

Homosexuality.  Woof.  That was a toughie.  I feel so liberated now that I have explained it.  I think I was more nervous that I would not be able to explain it properly.  Well, what I thought would be a tough conversation turned out to be way more simple than I thought.  "Two men or two women love each other as Mommy and Daddy do."  Done.  That was too easy!

While I am not prepared to write a book on it, and I am certain that there will be more questions and talk about it as they are emotionally/developmentally prepared for it, for now, I feel like I just made it through one of those  tough parenting trials we face.  Teaching love is hard.  Teaching the action of love, acceptance of differences, and judgement, are all incredibly challenging things to properly teach my children.  My actions should speak for my lack of words.  My prayer for my children is that they will live a life that is pleasing to their Maker, and that they will serve Him, and love.  Everyone.  Love everyone.

As for the "cry it out" method… it worked for me.  But what works for one, might not work for another.  The lesbian thing.. not really my vibe.  But I have decided that if I were ever single, I would like to have a "Golden Girls" arrangement with my closest girlfriends and my mom.  She and I would be Dorothy and her mother.  I am taking applications for Rose and Blanche's parts.  I love a good St. Olaf story ;o)