the boys and the fish

Our boys are due for a little spotlight action on the blog, so here are our precious budding young men...

Easter morning: I love our family tradition of "running to the tomb".  I wake up the kids, telling them that I've just been to the tomb and they, the "disciples," need to run there with me to see....  Then Daddy, the angel, announces that Jesus is not there...  And when they came back home the kids each found a chocolate egg (what a treat to find a German import here- just like my mom used to buy!) and a little basket of jelly beans from Grandma and Grandpa hidden in the living room.  

Well, I guess that's the reason they haven't been showing up here much lately... I really need to get more pics of these stellar guys.   Here's hoping for some willing camera cooperation...

And now for a surprising announcement:   We Got Pets.  Six fish "as a present for daddy" for his birthday about two weeks ago (also worthy of a shout out on the blog: Happy Birthday Dear Love.)  We each got to name one.  Drum roll please.  Introducing...

Zoomy, Isaiah's
Swimmy Sunrise K, Marian's
Nemo, John's
Mo Mo, Vivi's (that's how she says Nemo)
Goldie Pretty Fish, mine (with counsel from Marian)
Fish 1.0, daddy's

I gave the kids "the talk," that we didn't know how long these fish might live.... we had heard they don't live long and we didn't know if it would be just a few hours or a few days or weeks.  Good thing they were prepared and a good thing the first loss was mine.  Goldie Pretty Fish died after about 6 hours in her glass bowl in our home.  Very possibly the bowl was just too small for 6 fish?  But they had much more water per fish than they did in the bucket we bought them from!

Nemo and Mo Mo were twins, beautifully dark orange and black and white.  Nemo and Swimmy Sunrise died the next day and then three of them lived on for 4 more days, a happy little family.  Then Zoomy and Fish 1.0 both died one morning, which we noticed right after Daddy headed out early for class so I was left to bear the brunt of the grief and the burial by myself.

And it has been a good lesson.... to learn about what happens to bodies that are not living anymore... and how Jesus' body never did decay (another thing missing from the blog:  Happy Resurrection Day!!!).  Life here is broken and it's a good thing to learn to grieve well, to grieve with the hope, the rock solid confident HOPE that one day it will all be made right.  When our King comes again and establishes His kingdom, there will be no more tears.... even no more toddler tears for tiny goldfish.

Mo Mo is beginning week two alone in the fish bowl now and we're all quite sad for his lonesomeness.  It's sweet to see the kids talk to him and try to love a little fishy pet as best they can.  I don't imagine he'll make it much longer and I don't imagine I'll pay any more tribute than this one post.  It was a sweet trip to pet land... and I think we'll be done again for a while.