Hudson Aaron

Sean, Darla and I love teaching, telling stories and entertaining the masses. Serving doesn't quite make it on the radar so you can imagine our delight when we got our hard working, steady, serving Hudson Aaron. At 3 years old he likes the mornings where we clean bathrooms together. Toilet brush in hand, he sticks with me until the job is done. He wants to be a dad and a garbage man when he grows up. A couple weeks ago he was helping with bathrooms when I realized he disappeared. A quick once over of the house and I started getting nervous. I heard his voice at the end of the driveway. I peered out to see my 'toddler' retrieving our large garbage can from where the garbage man emptied it that morning. I had asked him to set the bathroom's garbage bag out by the kitchen door but he's not one to do a half-ass job. He heaved the bathroom garbage in, and was resting the big can on his hip while he talked with a neighbor. He then very neatly returned it to it's place beside the garage.
When he came in I said, "Hudson, if you choose to be a garbage man when you grow up I absolutely believe you will be the best at that job." He grinned, threw his arms around my neck and said, "Me love you, Mom!"

"Be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid nor dismayed for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9. I got this verse in my head for Hudson before I even knew he was a boy. It is right on. He is strong...which might come from being a 3 yr old in a 6 yr old body. (He outgrew his 5T clothes after his 3rd bday in June) I have sympathy for him when adults address him and then look surprised when his speech isn't that of a 6 yr old. He has great courage, which we discovered last December when he had tubes put in his ears. After realizing his language was developing slowly and without many consonants, we learned he had not been hearing properly due to a lot of fluid stuck in his ears. Not only was he courageous in the process of doctor appts. and surgery, but he was courageous in learning words, in hanging in there when everything sounded noisy. With Darla as interpreter he has plugged away, not letting misunderstandings slow him down.

Hudson is passionate about tools and often motivates S. by pulling on his jeans with holes (his 'rip-ED pants' as he says) and saying, "We work on your car, Dad? What we work on, Dad?" He makes sure everyone is careful with our kitchen table because he helped S. build it and is very proud of his work. Hudson is only 17 1/2 months younger than Darla and takes seriously the role of her protector. When she falls asleep first he covers her with blankets and adorns her bed with stuffed animals. When she's scared he assures her, "Me shoot tigers and bears, Darla. Me get them for you!"

I never really had much chance to have Hudson be my 'little boy' because at the age of 2 he insisted that I stop rocking him so he could rock me instead. So we would sing and pray with me tediously "sitting" on his lap. I have a feeling he will be defending the defenseless throughout his life and I pray that he will see that serving and working hard are traits of a real man... traits of Christ.