yep. a resurrected fish... that's what i said. and this is how it went down.....
yesterday, i had the very hard job of telling eden that in 3 weeks she will be going to the doctor for her 5 year check up and at that appointment she would be getting shots for kindergarten. (you may wonder why i chose to tell her 3 weeks in advance. because, dear friends, after 5 years i've figured out that the 'sneak attack' method doesn't work with that kid. she needs time to process this stuff.) now, i didn't expect her to jump up for joy when she received this news, but i also didn't expect the 45 minute emotional breakdown that followed. i mean, if anyone would have walked in in the middle of that conversation, they would have assumed that she had just gotten the actual shots... in fact, they may have assumed that she had been shot! it was bad. really bad. but we worked through it. all of it. and at the end, we were all laughing. and i was exhausted.
fast forward to this afternoon. i was in the girls' room, and while i was in there i decided to look in the fish bowl to see if dot and orange had been fed. my heart sank... orange was floating at the top, caught up in the plant. i tapped the bowl. nothing. this was the moment i had been dreading since the day we brought those fish home. orange had left her earthly home. so, i did what any good mom would do.... i made sure the girls did not go into their room, because i was not about to have this conversation!!! i waited until after dinner, then i pulled the man of the house aside. i gave him a brief synopsis of the shot conversation from the night before, since i hadn't told him yet, then i laid the big one on him... i informed him of the untimely death of our beloved fish and then told him that it was his turn. his turn to break her heart. his turn to dry the tears. his turn to teach a life lesson. i stood firm in my decision... he recognized i was not backing down, and he stepped up to the job. i hid around the corner to listen. he did such an awesome job!! i was so impressed with his explanation. he did so good that eden didn't even cry. (ok, as glad as i was that she didn't cry, i'm going to admit... i was a bit miffed. the whole point of this was that he would have to dry the tears. oh well.) then i hear my name.
"Kari?"
"Yes."
"Which fish did you say it was??"
"Orange." so, i walked into the room to show him where she was.
"This Orange?"
i'm not kidding, folks, as i live and breathe, that dead fish was swimming!!
"Praise Jesus," I exclaimed!! (yeah, i actually did say 'praise Jesus' about a fish... i guess i was just a bit overcome with the emotion of it all.... and the best part about that is when i said it, eden piped right up, "He saved her! Her brought her back to life!!")
there were two valuable lessons learned tonight from this fish story. the first lesson is that of the inevitable end of life. all that lives, dies. my husband taught that lesson to my daughter tonight. he did a really good job. she's still going to be sad when that fish really does die, but her daddy did a great job laying the groundwork to prepare her for that day.
the second lesson is this... listen up, moms... dad's will always catch the lucky breaks. at least that's the way i feel in this house. we help our kids deal with some real yucky stuff in their little lives. and whenever we try to stick it to our husbands so they can get a taste of what we go through, the Lord is going to intervene and bring a fish back to life. because, let's face it, men always have each others' backs. :)
