The whole world...

Tonight at bedtime, I sang and rocked Little Sister while Big Sis snuggled under her covers.

A few nights ago, I remembered that, when Big Sis was the age Little Sis is now, she loved to sing songs with lyrics that could include the names of our family and friends. So tonight, I sang the "Goodnight Ladies" song we sang at the end of Girl Scout campfires, but with the girls' names. Then I sang dozens of verses of "He's Got The Whole World In His Hands."

Little Sister makes the cutest little Tarzan grunt (complete with poking herself in the chest) whenever she hears her name (or sees herself in photos, etc.) It is adorable, but not exactly conducive to soothing lullabies. Combine that with the fact that she would pick her head up off of my shoulder, call out her sister's name and point in her direction every time the song included Big Sister, and we were all getting a little tickled (and not very calm).

But it was one of those darling moments I never want to forget. One I'll miss in a matter of weeks- since Little Sis is changing so quickly, and the grunt is sure to be gone soon. My eyes welled with tears of joy in the moment, love for my girls, and gratitude for all that I have been given. Then I immediately thought of families missing simple moments like this- especially those in Haiti right now, and the tears came for more melancholy reasons.

The last line of the song was one I improvised. It was more of a prayer- a reassurance I needed to sing and a reminder I needed to hear:

"He's got the hurting and the hungry in His hands... He's got the WHOLE world in His hands."

Haiti Earthquake

BTW: If you wanted to kick Pat Robertson in the head as much as I did this week, you need to check out Donald Miller's blog post about Robertson's recent comments. It was good for me to read- before I found it I was pretty angry and planning on linking to Keith Olberman's thoughts instead...