I was very rattled yesterday. In all honesty, I still am. My skin is still crawling. But Wavy let us sleep better than she has been recently, so that helped. Here are some slightly clearer thoughts about what went on at the beach.
I want to believe that the woman taking pictures and interacting with my kids meant no harm. I don’t want to write these people off as predators. I, too, have been in situations where my kids are interacting with strangers kids. But I look for the parents. If I can catch their eye, I make sure I smile or wave or somehow make contact. There’s just some safety there. When I approached the group on the beach, I was far from menacing. I believe I had a smile on my face, and I was just casually wandering over. I was anticipating a short conversation about how cute all of our kids are. But, nope. Their whole group instantly got up and left. Why?! Why, if not for guilt?? They looked and acted guilty.
I struggled through the evening really hard. I was just emotionally drained. I cried a lot, on and off. I was SO disappointed. I LOVE Waskesiu, and this lake day was already such a stretch, and I cannot believe it ended the way it did. Just SO discouraging.
The win from the day? I was talking to Laela about everything that had happened, and I told her that the most important thing was keeping her and the other kids safe. She corrected me and said that the most important thing is “not to run from God.” Her words, not mine. She knows what true safety feels like, and where it comes from. And that is AWESOME!
All in all, God prevailed, like He always will.