Today is Wednesday, September 28th, 2005; Karen's Korner #643

I haven't shared a "Chicken Soup for the Soul" email for awhile. I think you will like this one!
 
Love and Cheeseburgers
By Kathy Bohannon

     Things have been hard for a friend of mine.  She and her six-year-old son have just moved into their own apartment, a break they needed to get out of a difficult situation.  The responsibilities of having their own home puts pressure on her while she tries to support her son, and once in a while, it gets the best of her.
     The little guy is a typical six-year-old: mischievous, energetic and curious.  His questions deluge her daily as he discovers the world around him.  Most of the time, she takes it all in stride, amazed at how easy it is to please him.  The promise of a simple cheeseburger from his favorite restaurant is enough for him to be on his best behavior for an entire weekend.  His mom is grateful she can give him what he wants, at least for now.
     One evening at the end of a very long day at work, the demands of the day were heavy on her mind.  After picking up her son at after-school care, the two of them went home for dinner.  While going through the motions of preparing his food and looking over his first-grade school papers, the tasks of being a single mom overwhelmed her.  Once she had him bathed and tucked into bed, she sat down in the living room and cried.  Everything hit her suddenly and without warning.  The recent loss of her beloved grandmother, combined with the responsibilities of single-parenting, was just too much.  Wiping tears from her eyes, she looked up to see her son peeking into the living room from the hallway.
     "Mommy, are you okay?"
     "Yes, honey," she replied.  "I'm just a little sad."
     He walked over to her and wrapped his small arms around her neck.  Though she tried to hold them back, her tears fell even more freely, and her son reassured her that everything would be all right.  Hurrying back to his bedroom, he returned quickly, handing his mom a small piece of paper folded into a crumpled square.
     She opened it and read its message: "I love you, Mom."
     She would have reached out at that moment and held him for eternity, but he had gone into the kitchen and was busy making her his special dish.  It's the only thing he can cook, and it took him quite a while to prepare it.
     Finally, he came into the living room with a plate of buttered toast.  It was all he had to give, that and the note.
     While he sat there proudly, she ate every bite, even though the butter was in a huge clump in the middle.
     "That's what love is all about," she later told me.  "He gave me all he had, wrote the words he best knew how to spell, prepared the only food he knew how to prepare.  I'm not nearly as alone as I was feeling that evening.  I have a wonderful son who loves me."
     Sometimes, when you least expect it, a blessing from God shines through your darkest moment.  For my friend, that blessing is with her all the time, in tennis shoes and tiny blue jeans.
     I asked her what in the world a parent could do when a child has given his all.
     She smiled and replied, "The next day, I took him out for a cheeseburger."


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