Freddie Bear Learns a Life Lesson

As a service project, the HCA Early Learning Center (also known as "Freddie's preschool") just participated in the St. Jude's Trike-a-Thon. The kids raised money (Freddie's goal was $100, and he made it to $126, thanks to both sets of grandparents and the Pressley Group's Benevolence Fund, which didn't exist, until I just now named it that!) and learned bicycle safety every day for a week.
The whole thing culminated last Friday when the entire preschool rode in the Trike-a-Thon.

This was one of the cutest events I have ever been a part of. As a service project of their own, the elementary students served as the littler kids' "pit crews." They did everything from washing bikes to passing out water bottles to walking alongside the little boys and girls who were worn out from nearly ninety minutes of pretty persistent pedaling.

Oh, and Jones did a fair amount of dancing.

As he does ...

Both boys were assigned to the Purple Jelly Beans team. This, of course, made for the perfect opportunity for all of us to show our Paladin pride, because honestly. What other article of purple clothing would a little boy who wants to name his future sons Bo and Luke Duke (as Jones announced last month) have?

Jeremy dropped off Freddie's Hot Wheels bike and his Spider-Man helmet after letting the boys out at school. Then, he and I showed back up at HCA right around 10 a.m. I'd been asked to take pictures for the preschool, and Jeremy was there, just because he's a good daddy who is blessed with the luxury of leaving the office whenever he wants to, so long as there isn't a client sitting across from him (seriously. I do not discount the gift of this).

Freddie did great for the first 30 minutes or so, and Heaven knows, Jones was MADE for HIS role as official cheerleader and tire cleaner. But just before 10:30, I saw Freddie walking in the bike lane, as opposed to riding in it.

"I'm scared," he told me when he got to me, giant crocodile tears streaming down his face. The crush of 36 boys and girls on bikes was making him nervous. Exacerbating the whole thing was the fact that he'd been up the nite before, scratching his eczema. I'd finally given him some Benadryl around 1:30 a.m., hoping it'd calm his skin down enough to let him get back to sleep, so he was tired - and itchy - and, understandably, uncomfortable with how many tiny tires were racing around a tight track.

I held him and gave him some water and reminded him that God is his Helper and that He is always with him. Both Jeremy and I prayed with him and let him rest for a minute but also told him that he HAD to finish his race, that God calls us to run the race with patience. It was MONUMENTALLY important to me that Freddie not give up.

Obediently - but timidly - he got back on his bike. Not long after, I noticed the super sweet school-wide Teacher's Aide walking along side him. She'd seen him struggling on the other side of the course and walked with him, every lap, for thirty minutes or more. When his teacher, Mrs. Burke, offered to walk with him instead, Freddie said he wanted to stay with the aide, Mrs. James.

Soon came time for a race-wide popsicle break. When the resting was done, Freddie hit the course again, this time with Mrs. Burke on one side and the brother who loves him more than he'd be willing to admit on the other. It started to rain, so just after the kids got back to riding, the teachers decided they'd just go three more laps. Mrs. Burke and Bobby Jones walked each of the three laps with Freddie, and when the race ended, a jubilant five year old ran over to me and said, "I want to give you a hug, Mama! I did it!"

He did!  And in doing it, he learned the valuable lesson of perseverance and also the importance of coming alongside those who need a little help. As I told Mrs. James in the thank you note I gave her after school that day, "The lessons of this morning will last that little boy a lifetime."

When I picked him up from school yesterday, Freddie repeated something that I assume Mrs. Burke told the class that day. "We didn't have a winner for the Trike-a-thon. The REAL winners were the kids of St. Jude's," he said, rightly acknowledging that the money raised would go to help those sweet, young patience.

But Freddie, for finishing a race that he wanted to quit, will always be a winner in MY book. I have rarely been more proud of him that I was then.

Jones with Mrs. Clackett's son, Josiah

If you look in the background of this photo, you can see
Jeremy and his Mini Me standing the EXACT SAME WAY. 

The "car wash" was so cute.

Sweet Mrs. James

When he'd finished, he ran up to me.
"Mama! I wanna give you a hug!"

I love Jones in the background of this picture.

Jones and Colton Rochester
helped Freddie park his bike.

HCA Spring Pictures

I'm a sucker for school pictures. The backgrounds may be ridiculous and the prices outrageous, but there is just something about your babies sitting on a treasure chest in front of a fallscape or, in the case of this year's HCA Spring Pictures, on a hay bale beside a picnic basket in a field of .. what, poppies? Tulips?

Regardless.

Though the last thing I need is more pictures of my boys, you know I snatched these bad boys up before that Strawbridge Studios itinerant photographer could say, "CHEEEEEESSEEEE!"

Freddie's shows are the price I paid for leaving
to get to Furman before the boys left for school.
I'd laid out their clothes; I assumed Jeremy would
know to put Freddie in his Sperry's, just like
Jones was in his. I didn't know until we got the pictures
back that Freddie had, instead, picked out his own
footwear. What can you do?

Jones got saved!

Tonite, Jones had had a rough nite. It hadn’t been rough until right at bedtime, and then, everything kind of fell apart for him, so he ended up in bed before Freddie. I tucked Freddie in, and as I walked by Jones’s room and in towards the den, I stuck my head in and said, “Good nite, Jones. I love you.”

He was laying on his stomach and turned his head towards me at the door and said, “Tomorrow nite, can we ask Jesus in my heart?” I walked in his room and said, “We can do it right now, if you want to.” He DID want to, praise the Lord, so just as I walked the path to salvation with one son on Sunday, I was privileged to walk with the other son tonite. I cannot believe what a gift this is!

After we went through everything (he told me his sins, like how he talked to me tonite and how he treated Freddie this afternoon and the way he lied to Jeremy this morning; he also started crying, saying how he didn’t want to be here when the earth burns up, which gave me the chance to tell him the great news of the Gospel), I sang “Over the Moon” to him. It’s been his favorite song, since he learned it at “Space School” VBS at Clyde First Baptist in 2017. I pointed out to him that he’d just done exactly what the song says to do:

“A - Admit to God you’re a sinner and repent to Him!
B - Believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and then
C - Confess your faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord,
And you will know eternal life forevermore.”

The incredible thing is that Freddie and I had just prayed that Jones would ask Jesus in his heart.

Best. Easter. EVER.

It will be hard for there to be an Easter happier than this one.

We went about our day, business as usual - Easter Bunny, church, lunch with my family, dinner with Jeremy's - and were putting the boys to bed. I was on Freddie Duty, Jeremy on Jones. The Bear and I were talking about nothing in particular - and certainly not salvation! - when we walked into Jeremy's bathroom to brush Freddie's teeth.

Apropos of nothing, he joyfully blurted out, "I wanna ask Jesus in my heart." Almost immediately, he added, "But I've already asked Him in my heart at my old school." For the last year or so, Freddie's told me he asked Jesus in his heart while singing "Into my Heart" in chapel with Mrs. Shana's class at Clyde First Baptist last year. I had no reason to not believe him, so I never really pushed him on it, waiting instead for things to happen organically - if, in fact, anything else needed to happen.

But I decided to lean in to tonite's random explosion. "Why do you need Jesus in your heart," I asked, eventually getting around to "to save me from my sins" and listing some of his sins, which included not being kind to Jojo, telling on Jojo, and "when you (meaning ME) yell at me (meaning him)," which is an indicator that he has disobeyed or been disrespectful.

From there, we went into his room, where he repeated a prayer after me. In it, we thanked Jesus for dying on the Cross. We praised Him for being strong enough to conquer death. We asked forgiveness for Freddie's sins, and listed the ones mentioned above, and we prayed that God would send the Holy Spirit to help Freddie be the boy He'd have him to be.

As soon as we'd said "Amen," he jumped out of my lap and said, "I'm gonna go tell Daddy." He ran into Jones's room and made his profession to Jeremy. We then when back into Freddie's room, where I sat in the rocking chair, and Freddie stood on his bed, eventually jumping into my lap, saying, "I'm gonna live for Jesus forever!"

That made me erupt into the only song that came to mind:

Living for Jesus, a life that is true.
Striving to please Him in all that I do.
Yielding allegiance, glad-hearted and free.
This is the pathway of blessing for me.

Oh, Jesus, Lord and Savior. 
I give myself to Thee,
for Thou, in Thine atonement,
didst give Thyself for me.
I owe no other Master.
My heart shall be Thy throne.
My life I give henceforth to live,
oh, Christ, to Thee Alone.

I'll be singing that to Freddie a lot now, hoping it'll always be a marker for him of the nite he decided to "live for Jesus forever." As soon as I'd finished tonite's rendition, Freddie asked, "Have YOU asked Jesus in YOUR heart?" When I said YES! he ran to Jones's room and asked Jeremy the same, promising to share his big news at school tomorrow.

I told Freddie he's now not just my son but also my brother in Christ, and then I thought of all of the songs that go with salvation - favorites, like, "There's a New Name Written Down in Glory" and "When He Reached Down His Hand for MEEEEEE!" and then I wept tears of gratitude that God had reached down His hand not only for ME but also for my Freddie Bear.

Best.Easter.EVER.

(pre-) Easter Pictures

With the boys being in school full time, I knew it'd be hard to do
my traditional, spur-of-the-moment, the-light-is-right, pre-Easter photo shoot at the little white chapel in Clyde this year. I was committed to getting it done, though, so this morning, when we woke up to no rain (for the first time in what seems like a long-time), I hurried the boys to get dressed and get in the car, so we could, hopefully, capture a little bit of this morning's Golden Hour.

We didn't.

By the time we got to the Chapel (just before 9 a.m.), it was all backlit and shadows. Thankfully, though, we found a few shady spots at Lake Junaluska, so all was not lost.

The purpose of these "pre-shoots" is to take the stress out of Easter morning. With pictures already taken, I can relax and enjoy the morning without turning into Attila the Hun, who's insisting everyone be dressed and ready early enough to get a good shot before heading to church.

It's worked like a charm.

This year, the boys really, REALLY tried to cooperate. Bless their hearts. Pictures are just HARD for little people. I ended our makeshift "shoot" with another renewed appreciation for what my friend Brooke does day in and day out and at the highest of levels.

Also, just before we left Junaluska, Jones ran over to me with a pair of dandelions he'd picked for me. The boys bring me these on the regular - and man, will I miss it when they outgrow this phase. The photos of him with the impromptu "boutonniere" are some of my favorites. He will definitely be wearing one of those come Resurrection Sunday!