Mind of an Elephant

They say that elephants never forget and my niece, Goose has the mind of an elephant.  This child is almost 5 and she never forgets anything, I mean ANYTHING.  Last night Nate and I kept the girls.  We fed them dinner, then settled down to watch a movie before we put them to bed.  Ususally when we watch movies, Goose ends up sitting next to Uncle Nate Nate and So-So ends up sitting next to me.  Well, last night as I sat down to watch, I ended up next to Goose.

As I began to sit down, I heard Goose whisper, "When did you have your baby?".  It took me by surprise, so I kind of ignored it, thinking maybe I heard her wrong.  But when I made eye contact with Nate, I realized that I had heard correctly.  So I asked her what she said and she said, "When did you have your baby?"  Now mind you, we had not been talking about babies last night or anything that would have brought that up, so I was a little shocked and confused.  So I said, "I didn't have a baby, Uncle Nate and I have baby Lucie at home, but we don't have a baby."  So she then looks up to me and says "You had a baby and she died."  I was really shocked then, so I just kind of looked at her and said, "Well, yes, that is right - we did."  She sat there for a minute and then looked back at me and said, "What did you name her?" and I just said,"Well, we didn't have a name for her yet."  And that was the end of the conversation.

Of course when Bub and Bird got home, it was the first thing I told her.  She was dumbfounded as well, because she said that she cannot remember a specific conversation that she had with Goose about our miscarriage.  She was there when we announced the pregnancy, and when we didn't have the baby Bub and Bird had to explain some things to her - but that was awhile ago.  I will never know what triggered those questions in the mind of that little 4 year old, but hearing the precious way she asked those questions was actually comforting and did my heart good last night.

Goose is not a snuggler, but for most of the movie she sat right next to me snuggled up with her head on my chest.  It was almost as if she knew I needed that comforting.  I love when the Lord gives us gifts in unexpected ways!