Through A Child's Eyes

***NOTE: Somehow this never got published and I just found it from the spring!***

(NO we weren't playing outside in 5 degree weather!)

My friends are adopting, in fact, I have several friends who are adopting, fostering, or talking about adopting.  The other night I was watching my friends' kids ... there's four of them now and they're at the age where I can sit back and watch them play ... they can negotiate their own issues, stay in the backyard, ride bikes, etc.  Their yard is also a "kid magnet" ... all the neighbor kids like to be at their house.

So, last week as I was watching them, a couple neighbor kids were over and I couldn't help but notice what they wanted to play.  To you or me it looked like a pretend game of house on the swingset ... complete with the youngest being the family "dog", but instead of house ... their game was called "orphan".  There was a "dog", a "lady in charge", a "sister", and an "orphan".

Like I said, it looked like just another game of "house", but it was so much more.  It was an example of children playing out what they are familiar with in their home - lives lived outside of themselves and focused on others.