Home Sweet Home

“Mom?” came the voice of my 3-year old from the back seat of the car.

“Yes Andrew,” I reply.

“Where are we going?” he asks for what seems like the umpteenth time.

My reply hadn’t changed, “We’re going home.”

“Oh,” he says, like it’s the first time he’s heard this bit of information.

We were on our way home from church, which is only a 5-minute drive, but my patience was wearing thin as we drove over the endless speed bumps through the neighborhoods.  I love going to church every Sunday, but our new schedule is more difficult than before.  The kids go to their Primary classes first, and then we have Sacrament Meeting at the end of the 3-hour block.  So, what this means is that by the time we get to Sacrament Meeting, the kids have a hard time sitting still for 1 minute, let alone 1 hour and 15 minutes.

The reason for the new schedule is because Don was recently called to be a counselor in the Korean Branch (congregation).  So, while he sits up front on the stand, I am left alone in the pews trying to teach and enforce the quiet voices of my boys.  There are only 2 other kids who attend the Korean Branch regularly, so every sound my boys make echoes through the chapel.  Everyone looks over and smiles with understanding, but I don’t like being a disturbance.  Not only that, but I don’t speak Korean, so I dawn headphones each week trying to keep a balance between being able to hear the translation and hear if my boys have lost their whisper voices.  While the translator tries her best to help the handful of Americans understand what is being said, I often miss a lot as I wrangle my boys.  Many Sundays I leave wondering what I learned, if anything, from the meeting.  For those of you who are LDS with kids, I’m guessing you’d give me an “Amen.”

As we entered our neighborhood, the voice from the backseat repeated, “Mom?”

“Yes, Andrew.”

“Where are we going?” he asks yet again.

I retorted, “Andrew, where are we going?”

“Home Sweet Home”, he answered, practically singing the words.

I looked back to see a huge smile on his face.  Caleb and I both busted up laughing as I had never heard him say that phrase before.  I am grateful for my boys who make me laugh every day, and I’m grateful to them for making my home a sweet home.