Our kids are lucky. I know you’re staring at your computer screen right now wondering what I have been drinking or smoking in order to make such a statement, but it really is true.

While our kids have been through horrific things, and things that no child should ever go through, the fact is that for our kids there are resources.

Let me back up a little bit and explain my position. It started this morning as I was sitting in church. Our pastor tackled the tough subject of war and soldiers laying down their lives for us. It is a hard subject to talk about from the pulpit, but she did a great job. As part of her sermon, she put together a power point show set a beautiful song and there were various pictures of children. One picture in particular got me to thinking about this topic. It’s one that we have seen so many times, but hit me full force today. It was a young boy, barely older than Hannah, holding a machine gun. This young boy was being trained to hate and kill. What a life for a child?

The song is by a group called The MadHatters from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. They are an acapella men’s group and the song is beautiful. It’s called “Prayer of a Child.” It made the pictures we were seeing that much more amazing.

More pictures showed starving children in third world countries who had a hand out waiting for some food. While our children may have gone hungry, there are resources available for our kids. There are food pantries, welfare checks, foster home and various other ways that our kids can be removed from these horrible situations. In these other countries, the children have no way out.

As I told my husband my thoughts, we also talked about the fact that these children live in countries that are constantly at war. They do not know peace. For us terrorism is a thing that we are completely aware of these days, but we do not live our lives knowing that bombs that will fall near our homes today. Seeing soldiers in the streets with machine guns causes us to be frightened. These children live with it every day.

The day the war in Afghanistan began, my husband and I left for a weekend trip to New York. Many people felt that we should postpone our trip because there may be retaliation and we would be in the line of fire. We did not hesitate and while we were in New York we felt completely safe. These children do not know the feeling of safety.

Our kids feared for their safety in other ways. Their war zone happened in their own homes, but there were places they could go that they could be safe and be kids for a little while. They could go to school without fear of being bombed, being trained to kill someone or being hungry.

While I don’t want any child to go through what my kids have been through, I am glad they were born in the United States, where foster care, the police and social workers could step in and help my kids. I cannot imagine the life of a child with no way out.

I am thankful that we live in the United States and for all the men and women who defend our country.

The MadHatters – Prayer of a Child

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