Looking Older

Today I baby-sat for a family that has become like my family out here. I met them 4 years ago when I was going to APU. Beth (the mom) was a nurse in the student health center. It turns out that she was looking for a babysitter for her 2 boys and I was looking for work. When I started watching them, Jeff was 10 and Matt was 6. They are a great family and I have loved getting to spend time with them the past 4 years. Beth has become my surrogate mom out here. We go to the same church-actually Derek and I started going to Hope Christian Fellowhip because of them. But, besides church I don’t see them much anymore. For 3 years I picked them up from school 2 or 3 days a week. It just didn’t work out for me to continue watching them this year with Connor’s schedule, coaching volleyball, having Logan, etc. I really miss spending time with them every week. So when Beth asked me last week if I could watch the boys today I said yes and was actually excited about baby-sitting. Jeff is about to be 14 and he is definately a typical 14 year old. He picks on Matt, his voice cracks, and he got really irritated today when he couldn’t go over to his friends house at the exact moment he wanted to because we needed to get permission from his mom first. Matt just turned 10 this week. He’s a great kid and Connor adores him. After we dropped Jeff off at his friends house, Matt, Connor, Logan and I went to the park. Connor had such a great time following Matt around everywhere he went and playing in clusters of trees that are Matt’s “forts.” It’s just been really neat to see Matt turn into such a great role model for Connor.

While we were at the park today, a woman said to me “Wow! Three kids-how is it having three kids? Is it a lot harder than two?” This can only mean one of two things. Either I am looking a much older than 25 these days or she thinks I was really young when I had Matt. I’ve gotten comments before when I’ve been out with Connor and Matt (or Jeff), I think because they are both blond and fair and look like they could be related to me. But the comments are always more like “Hmmm…these aren’t all yours, right? You don’t look old enough to have kids this old.” Or even “Are these your brothers (Matt and Jeff) and your son (referring to Connor)?” But I’ve never had anyone just flat out assume that I have a 10 year old son. It’s depressing to me regardless. Have I really aged that much that I look old enough to have a 10 year old? Or is it just completely acceptable to have a baby at 15?

Just because I love to post pictures, here’s a picture of Matt, Jeff, Beth, and Logan. Logan was just a few hours old. In fact, we hadn’t even left the labor and delivery room. They were the first people to meet Logan besides Derek, my mom, and I. Jeff and Matt still talk about how cool it was to meet him and hold him at 3 hours old.
Logan 124.jpg

One Reply to “Looking Older”

  1. Hey Megan, that’s so funny, it is such a small world. Beth used to live a couple of houses down from me growing up. Growing up, there was a street with about nine familis from our church on it, including my family and The Weavers. I didn’t know Beth as well because she was quite a bit older, but her little brother Ian was my best friend. They moved to Washington when I was in the first grade and I’ve kept in touch with at least Ian ever since. Man, that’s so crazy!

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