What She's Taught Them<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sweet #7 is warm and snuggly and wonderful to hold and cuddle. Her siblings fight with each other for the chance to let her curl up in their arms\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/2011\/12\/what-shes-taught-them.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What She's Taught Them\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sweet #7 is warm and snuggly and wonderful to hold and cuddle. Her siblings fight with each other for the chance to let her curl up in their arms\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/2011\/12\/what-shes-taught-them.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shoved to Them\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-12-22T13:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-08-22T20:49:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/files\/-wNpMBAvFvls\/TvN-UwTuSJI\/AAAAAAAAA7c\/8AnLzkSR5a4\/s320\/%2523s+6+and+7.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rebecca Frech\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rebecca Frech\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/2011\/12\/what-shes-taught-them.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/2011\/12\/what-shes-taught-them.html\",\"name\":\"What She's Taught Them\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-12-22T13:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-08-22T20:49:10+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/#\/schema\/person\/a480038559bb99863ca3ba86f368775d\"},\"description\":\"Sweet #7 is warm and snuggly and wonderful to hold and cuddle. Her siblings fight with each other for the chance to let her curl up in their arms\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/2011\/12\/what-shes-taught-them.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/2011\/12\/what-shes-taught-them.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/2011\/12\/what-shes-taught-them.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"What She’s Taught Them\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/\",\"name\":\"Shoved to Them\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/#\/schema\/person\/a480038559bb99863ca3ba86f368775d\",\"name\":\"Rebecca Frech\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/53a07a84a2f9a9ba08b14e744e53ae70?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/53a07a84a2f9a9ba08b14e744e53ae70?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Rebecca Frech\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/author\/rfrech\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What She's Taught Them","description":"Sweet #7 is warm and snuggly and wonderful to hold and cuddle. Her siblings fight with each other for the chance to let her curl up in their arms","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/2011\/12\/what-shes-taught-them.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What She's Taught Them","og_description":"Sweet #7 is warm and snuggly and wonderful to hold and cuddle. Her siblings fight with each other for the chance to let her curl up in their arms","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/2011\/12\/what-shes-taught-them.html","og_site_name":"Shoved to Them","article_published_time":"2011-12-22T13:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-08-22T20:49:10+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/files\/-wNpMBAvFvls\/TvN-UwTuSJI\/AAAAAAAAA7c\/8AnLzkSR5a4\/s320\/%2523s+6+and+7.jpg"}],"author":"Rebecca Frech","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Rebecca Frech","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/2011\/12\/what-shes-taught-them.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/2011\/12\/what-shes-taught-them.html","name":"What She's Taught Them","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-12-22T13:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2014-08-22T20:49:10+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/#\/schema\/person\/a480038559bb99863ca3ba86f368775d"},"description":"Sweet #7 is warm and snuggly and wonderful to hold and cuddle. Her siblings fight with each other for the chance to let her curl up in their arms","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/2011\/12\/what-shes-taught-them.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/2011\/12\/what-shes-taught-them.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/2011\/12\/what-shes-taught-them.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"What She’s Taught Them"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/","name":"Shoved to Them","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/#\/schema\/person\/a480038559bb99863ca3ba86f368775d","name":"Rebecca Frech","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/53a07a84a2f9a9ba08b14e744e53ae70?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/53a07a84a2f9a9ba08b14e744e53ae70?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Rebecca Frech"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/author\/rfrech"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1979"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":553,"date":"2011-12-22T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-12-22T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/2011\/12\/what-shes-taught-them.html"},"modified":"2014-08-22T15:49:10","modified_gmt":"2014-08-22T20:49:10","slug":"what-shes-taught-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/2011\/12\/what-shes-taught-them.html","title":{"rendered":"What She’s Taught Them"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

She looks long and hard at each face with a definite \u201cWho the heck are you?\u201d look snarling across her delicate features.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure if she has bad eyesight or a short attention span (Squirrel!), but she can\u2019t seem to place any of us.\u00a0 I\u2019m not exempt from her puzzled scrutiny.\u00a0 Sure she recognizes parts of me instantly, but she looks at my face and seems to think \u201cYou look awfully familiar to me\u2026..I just can\u2019t quite remember where I\u2019ve seen you before\u2026.Remind me, what was your name again?\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s amazing that a person living in a house populated by strangers can trust us so completely.\u00a0 If she can\u2019t quite recall our faces, she at least knows that nothing bad has ever happened to her here, and there seems to be a surplus of love.\u00a0 This is the lesson she brought with her, all tied up in a sweet pink bow.\u00a0 She is teaching my other children (and her parents, too) what it means to love someone completely and selflessly and to expect nothing in return.<\/p>\n

<\/a>She hasn\u2019t yet developed the ability to truly love anyone back, but they certainly adore her.\u00a0 They don\u2019t get a smile in return.\u00a0 There are no kind words, no hugs or kisses.\u00a0 In fact, she\u2019s not always even nice.\u00a0 A warm embrace is just as likely to be greeted with her loudly filling her diaper or screaming for no particular reason as it is to be met with a contented and sighing baby.\u00a0 They don\u2019t seem to care.\u00a0 She\u2019s showing them that loving someone means accepting the disgusting and unpleasant parts, too.\u00a0 They know that she won\u2019t even be grateful for their care, but they wipe her spit-up covered chin anyway. They eagerly fend off the grabbing arms of younger brothers because \u201cI just got a chance to hold her\u2026..\u201d<\/p>\n

Last night, my 10 year old stroked his sister\u2019s hair and sighed, \u201cI just love her so much, Mom.\u00a0 Do you think she loves me?\u201d<\/p>\n

I brushed his hair aside and, kissing his forehead, replied, \u201cnot yet, sweetheart, but give her time.\u201d<\/p>\n

He leaned over and kissed her cheek, then told me, \u201cThat\u2019s okay.\u00a0 I\u2019ll wait.\u00a0 I\u2019ll wait forever.\u201d\u00a0 And his mother smiled.<\/p>\n

They are learning about perfect love, the kind of love God has for them. She is their specially chosen gift and their perfect Catechism lesson just in time for Christmas\u2026.and God was clever enough to wrap it all up in such a cute package that they not only willingly learn this lesson, they fight for the chance .<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"