One evening when my middle-est was overtired, I tucked him into bed with some sweet, extra cuddle time.  Matt was out of town so I was on my own.  Luckily my biggest was reading bedtime books to my littlest, so we were all right for some time.  But eventually I had to say goodnight.  Again his tears came hot and fresh.  

With tired eyes he looked up into mine and asked,  "Can we take them to that

place you talk about where orphans live?"

Confused I asked him, "What?  Who?  Who are you talking about?"  

"I want to leave Caleb and Asher there so it's just you and me at bedtime."

Awww... how sad.  

I realize, of course, that Brody's words were not about his brothers or about orphans, they were about himself.  He was concerned about getting his own deep needs met.  And since he is my Brody-Bear, my Bro-delicious, my Brod-acious, what concerns him concerns me.  We all want to meet those tender heart-needs of our little ones.  My Brody needs lots of tender one-on-one time to fill his tank.  Always has. And likely always will.  It's how he's hard-wired.  And so Matt and I are sensitive and try to meet those needs in the context of our family of five, all the while praying that as we help him grow he will develop a larger world view.  We want his world to be bigger than "Population Brody."

 One of my favorite songs from the past year is Matthew West's "Population Me."

In my own little world it hardly ever rains

I've never gone hungry,  always felt safe

I got some money in my pocket shoes on my feet

In my own little world

Population me

I try to stay awake through the Sunday morning church

I throw a twenty in the plate but I never give 'til it hurts

and I turn off the news when I don't like what I see

it's easy to do when it's

population me

What if there's a bigger picture

what if I'm missing out

What if there's a greater purpose

I could be living right now

outside my own little world

Stopped at the red light, looked out my window

 Outside the car, saw a sign, said "Help this homeless widow"

Just above this sign was the face of a human

I thought to myself, "God, what have I been doing?"

So I rolled down my window and I looked her in the eye

Oh how many times have I just passed her by

I gave her some money then I drove on through

in my own little world there's

Population two

Right now I am daily, sometime hourly, learning to live a POPULATION FIVE existence as I lay down selfishness and tend to the hearts in my home.  But I want even more than that for our family. I'm not talking about growing the number of children we have, but I want a population determined by God's heart for humanity and not the finite size of our family.  

How do we look outside of our home so that we might point our children to the needs of those all around us?  I want my children to care for the fatherless and the lost, the oppressed and the needy.  There is a greater purpose... and I don't want our family to miss out.  I want to teach the children, with my words, prayers, and deeds, that there is love and charity to give outside "our own little world."

Yesterday I took my guys to McDonald's for Happy-Meals and some Happy-Play on the playground.  There weren't many children to play with, but the ones that were there were all little girls.  All younger.  All different ethnic backgrounds.  Somehow these little ones tugged at my eldest's heart, because he came up to me and whispered in my ear:

"Can I choose a little sister?"  

Again I had to ask, "Who? What?  What are you talking about?"

"Can I have a little sister?  And can I be the one to pick her out?"

He wasn't talking about the children on the playground, but for some reason they made him think of all the potential little sisters in orphanages around the world, just waiting for a big Brother like him. "Population Caleb" grew just a little bit yesterday.