The Party That Never Quits

Mine do, anyway.

They don't look after their possessions, responding to our entreaties as to why they've destroyed yet another thing with "you can just buy us a new one"

We don't.

But one of the things that irritate Adam and myself to no end is the constant "I'm starving" that is moaned to us multiple times a day.  No matter when they last ate, or how much they shovelled away, or what they recently turned their noses up at, you'd think we never feed them.

About 6 months ago, we had had enough of it from Troy. He was a little over 10 at the time, and we were smack bang in the middle of a rather difficult year with him, from Autism related behaviours.  He was being excessively selfish and demanding, so we knew we needed to nip this in the bud very quickly, lest it become an ingrained habit which doesn't bode well for, you know, being a productive member of society.

One evening, absolutely fed up with him being elevated for about 2 hours, comprising of yelling and screaming that he was starving and going to die, Adam opened the computer and in the images section, googled

famine Africa

Then we showed Troy the pictures.

THIS, son, is starving.

Troy was absolutely shocked. Like Jon Acuff's daughter did, Troy responded with "That's not real, right?" and "That baby didn't die, did it?"

We let it sink in, we answered his questions, and impressed upon him how incredibly fortunate and privileged he was/is. We prayed with him, and still musing over the reality of what he had seen, his behaviour forgotten, he went to bed.

About an hour later, he came out again. We could tell he had been crying.

"Can I send the children some food? Maybe some clothes?"

It had hit home. 

We then explained to him that he can, in a round about way, through Compassion, through whom we sponsor Delmar from Guatemala.  We told him, if he likes, we would sign him up and he could do jobs to earn the money to send to a child somewhere in Africa. Then we sent him back to bed.

For the next few months, intermittently, Troy would ask if we could "choose a child". We would remind him that he would need to do chores, and that would usually have him abandon the subject.  However, about a month ago, he was asking us every day. So I sat him down and worked out some chores that he would need to do to pay for a sponsor child. We really spoke to him about how important this was, and that it would be for a very long time.

He said he understood. He loved the idea that they would be going to school 'together'. And on further.

So, we opened up the compassion website and clicked on the criteria Troy wanted...

Africa...

boy...

And there, waiting for 273 days for a sponsor, was Andrew, age 10, from Uganda.



Perfect.

Troy was jubilant. He had helped give food and clothes and school to someone in Africa.

Troy is listed as the correspondent, and he is so stinking excited.  Of course, he's not so excited about having to do his chores everyday, and we are still battling the bad attitude there (so frustrating!) but I think once they start writing letters to each other, this will change.

The pictures we showed him still haunt him. He was being snotty the other day, and we asked him if he needed to see the pictures again. He quickly answered no.

Hopefully, this will help foster a heart for those less fortunate. I hope Andrew is only the first of many children Troy will sponsor in his life.

"Mum... Cora smells like ice-cream"

:)

The things I love about Troy are...



1. He is my first born
2. He is my eldest son
3. He is so tender hearted
4. He is brave
5. He is tenacious
6. He is amazingly good at sports
7. He is a huge help to me
8. His blue, blue eyes
9. His developing sense of humour
10. How excited he was we were expecting baby number 6
11. He changes nappies... number ones AND number twos
12. He makes breakfast for the kids most mornings
13. How hard he tries
14. His cool sense of style
15. The way he still wants to kiss me in public, even though he's 9
16. How much he's taught me about patience
17. That he doesn't hold it against me when I fail
18. He fetches and carries with little complaining
19. He'll eat pretty much anything
20. He loves to sing
21. He loves to tinker on the piano
22. He adores his dad
23. He is incredibly loving
24. He doesn't like swearing
25. He loves to read
26. He loves to draw
27. He loves to write
28. He loves to pray
29. That he copes so well without a defined routine at home
30. He's loyal
31. He loves his daddy's football team
32. He's a stickler for rules
33. He is exceptionally good at maths
34. The way he just wants to "be with" me sometimes
35. He LOVES Hillsong ;)
36. He loves to help out at church
37. How chuffed he was that he is officially on the "collecting the tithe" roster
38. He'll give anything a go
39. How he refuses to be defined by his autism
40. That he never gave up at school... he just kept slogging on through till he got it
41. He loves the water
42. He asks permission most of the time
43. He's just a really good looking kid!
44. He has incredibly thick hair
45. He'll probably be taller than Adam when he's fully grown
46. His cute way of phrasing things
47. How he reads to the younger kids
48. He loves animals
49. He is always eager to please
50. He prays for his future wife
51. His concern about Adam's weight
52. He makes his own bed
53. He can do laundry
54. He washes dishes
55. He kisses my hand
56. How he sees things in the clouds
57. He loves to play in the rain
58. He's certainly not afraid of a little dirt
59. He's an awesome big brother
60. He loves to dance
61. He still calls me "mummy"
62. He got all miffy because I decorated the girls room and not the boys
63. He'd much rather sleep in a hammock than a bed
64. He loves word-searches
65. He can play any computer game
66. He can bleed heaps and be fine
67. But the minute he sees someone else bleed, he gets woozy
68. Spiders freak him out a little
69. He worries when I'm hurt
70. He looks super cute in his glasses
71. He doesn't even bother to ask to watch a movie outside of the two ratings he's allowed
72. He thinks my spaghetti bolognaise is the best in the world
73. He likes tuna
74. He makes those little chatterbox paper toys all. the. time
75. He drew a picture of my pregnant sister once, and it was adorable
76. And he called her Aunty Bump for a while
77. He puts the Smallies into their car seats for me
78. He's fascinated by gadgets
79. He wants to be a doctor
80. No... a teacher ;)
81. He loves classical music
82. He wants to give ballet a go
83. Once he's focused, that's it
84. He's got a great arm on him
85. He's a one on one type of kid
86. He's learning how to deal with frustration
87. He can build pretty much anything with Lego
88. He loves spending time with his dad
89. He'd cook more if I let him
90. He'll climb anything
91. He'll jump off anything
92. He loves cushions
93. He'll do pretty much any job for money
94. The way he used to run looking at his shadow
95. The way he endears himself to everyone
96. His high pain threshold
97. The way he doesn't care what people think about him
98. The way he loves to read the Bible
99. He always says "thank you for dinner, that was yummy!"
100. The precious way he knows God.

Troy turned 8 yesterday. Wow.

We went ten pin bowling, and I wish we owned a camera. It was hillarious. Drew and Bethany's balls were so agonisingly slow down the lane, because basically, they put it on the ground and pushed. Watching their pins fall, as my brother Rob put it, was like watching an octogenerian lay down from standing up. Funniest thing about it was that they ended up with pretty good scores.

Troy managed to bowl a strike. Man, that kid knows how to celebrate. I think the professional bowlers (talk about making you feel lame) in the lane next to us thought it was pretty cool too.

We'll definately do it again. It was a fairly expensive little outing, $50 for three kids and three adults, but I think judging by the lights in the kids eyes, we'll have to afford it more often. I asked Rob who he thought was having the most fun, the kids, or the adults watching the kids. We couldn't quite decide.

Highlights included:
Troy throwing the ball behind him
Me falling over
Rob managing to get a gutter ball with the bumpers up
The look of pride in Drews face when he got a spare when he only had one pin to hit
The way Bethany would jump up and down as her ball slooooowly made it's way down the lane
Adam's 3 strikes and 4 spares (he's so chuffed)
Eli laughing and giggling the whole time
Amy trying to stand up, but was standing on her dress, so she headbutted the floor three times.

You so wish you were there.