They're all our kids.

Recently we've had a couple of friends whose kids have been hurt- thankfully nothing super serious, as in a permanent injury, but still... you get the call that a child has been hurt, and you feel it. It's not your child, but you know exactly how that parent feels. It's not your child, but you would do anything to take that child's pain away. It's not your child, but you would gladly take that injury on yourself to take that pain.

And then you realize. If you took the pain of every injury, from every child, you would be constantly laid up. Maybe it's because we have two boys, but someone is always banged up in our circle of friends. We've got casts, crutches, surgeries, dentists on call... and we've all got the "Emergency Room Accident Rider" on our insurance policies. For boys, injuries are a part of growing up. Of becoming their own people.

We'll pick them up, dust them off, stitch them up, patch them up, and then send them out into the big world to get hurt again.