In a few days we will move our daughter, Andrea, down to Fort Worth so she can begin graduate school. Aaron is very attached to Andrea and sees her more as a mother figure than a sister. She’s lived an hour away for the past 6 months, and every weekend Aaron asks if Andrea is “coming over to see us.” He knows that she is moving to Texas, and has once again asked if she will “come over to see us” when she moves. I’ve told him that she won’t be able to come over as often now. He hasn’t acted upset at this outwardly, but has been quiet when I’ve told him that fact. He’s processing all of this, as he always does.
One of the first facts that he processed involved the state of Texas itself. Aaron loves maps and flags and always wants to know where places are located geographically. One day as he talked about Andrea’s move to Texas, he said, “So Texas is underneath Kansas. It’s the place of cowboys!”
More or less, Aaron, on both counts.
A couple weeks ago, when Andrea had “come over”, we were eating supper and suddenly Aaron looked at Andrea and said, “Andrea, I can give you a movie to take down there.” Aaron has quite a collection of DVDs and he loves them, so this was a very generous offer…………..or so we thought. Until he added:
“You can get it from the shelf on this side of my desk.” – as he made a hand motion indicating which side he was talking about. “Those are the ones I don’t like.”
Um……….well………..thanks, Aaron.
One thing you can always count on is that Aaron will be honest……….totally, unashamedly honest.
Aaron was quite pleased with himself and didn’t know why on earth we were laughing. Later, when Andrea went up to his room, she teasingly asked him if she could take some DVDs from the other side of his desk……….from the large bookshelf full of DVDs that he DOES like………….and that he did not offer to her. He thought for a few seconds and then told her that, yes, she could take some from that shelf. And added, “You tell me which ones I don’t like.” Huh?
Dear honest Aaron. As is so often the case, we have to sort through what he says or does and still see his heart. He does love Andrea and to him he was showing that love.
But only on THIS side of his desk!!
He Said What?! 