Pennies By the Inch

Jackson (4) came to me after church IN TEARS because in Primary he was given a pamphlet for "Pennies by the Inch", a program for kids to be able to donate their pennies to help other kids with health problems. "Just LOOK at this, Mom" he said between sobs, and he thrust the pamphlet at me. "Look at this boy!"

He was a run on, blubbering sentence, "I don't want to go there and get shots and the doctors will do this to me at the hostible and there's bleed and things poking out of you and it really hurts!" I calmly told him that nobody was going to do that to him and he wasn't going to the hospital. "But they told me, and now I have to go, and I don't want them to do that to me!" He was horrified. To the core. I suppressed a smile at his complete misunderstanding about the program, and thought it MUST look so scary to him (he is a regular band-aid consumer for the slightest of scratches).

Me: "No, sweetie, they are just asking for your pennies to help kids at the hospital who are trying to get better from their owies. They need money to get better and you can help."
Jackson: (still in trauma) "I don't want to waste my money. I don't have very much money and I would be wasting it if I give it, so HERE. Take this, and this." He rid himself of the pamphlet and the donation envelope, and couldn't do it fast enough so that it would be out of his life for good.

The big boys and I really had to show restraint because the shock of his statements sent us giggling. Poor Jackson. I hope he stays healthy. I would hate for him (or any child) to have to go through major physical problems. We have been abundantly blessed so far with not so much as a broken arm.

And as far as it "wasting money" to donate? I can't think of a better place to send ALL of my pennies.

By the way, the photo (from THE infamous pamphlet) with a baby with tubes up it's nose is, according to Jackson, getting all it's boogers sucked out. What a handy tool... but, no.

My heart goes out to the many families who have passed their way through Primary Children's Hospital. I have known several and would not want to trade shoes with them. A mom with a little baby girl getting a heart transplant recently remarked that she would do anything to be there for a surgery to put tubes in her daughter's ears like other parents in the waiting room. (See "Gracie's Blog" under my blog list-- she passed away 2 weeks ago at 11 months old.)

I'll take advice from the full-page hamburger ad I saw today: Objects (small trials I have) appear larger than actual size.