WE ARE OFFICIALLY POOR!

(Trish) This morning I opened Abbie’s back pack to find a sealed envelope labeled “ The Hiduk Family.” I opened it and the enclosed letter said that we had been “Adopted” for Christmas. I showed Roger and he blew it off and said that we don’t need it and that there are other families that truly need this more than we do. Although I agree, I experienced emotion that I must express. At first I was like wow, they think we’re poor! Then I was like, they think we’re poor! I was happy and pleased to be looked at that way and then I was sort of mad because they decided that we were poor.. I don’t know, maybe I am just being silly. We will send the letter back and Thank them, and let them know that there are other children in our very neighborhood that don’t have coats or boots or even Dads.. Bless them. We are blessed.

(Roger) I must say that this humbled me a little bit. In my opinion we are by no means "poor". We qualify for state aid and free lunches at school, but my kids don't hurt for anything and we don't miss any meals. This brings into question my being able to "support" my family and the self-worth that a man gets from doing so. Trish has been supporting us for about 2 years now. She is great at her job and likes it for the most part. I have gone through some times of struggle with working part-time. I never realized how much my self-concept was wrapped up in my career.

The other side of this is that it is cool to spend so much time with my kids. I was the only dad to go on my daughters field trip this week and she thought that was really cool. Just yesterday my son's preschool teacher told Trish how much they liked me being around because many of the kids don't have fathers. Maybe there is more ministry for dads staying home than I first thought....