This simple quote comes to us when it's just about bedtime and the Dwarfs have a hard time going to bed because of their exciting day Sleepy, the Dwarf who lives up to his name, asked this simple request.
Have you ever asked someone to tell a story or perhaps you were the one that was being asked? You don't have to be a child to want to be told a story. If you read a book, you're being told a story through words. If you're watching a movie or a theater performance, you're being told a story through not only words but also through what you see either on the screen or the stage. We can learn a lot through listening to stories almost as much as than we can write at a story. Although when you're writing a story there is a lot that goes into it: character development, descriptions, the plot, what the character say, what they do, where they go, how they dress. Do you remember the first time you were ever told a story? Do you remember what your favorite bedtime story as a child was?
I grew up listening to stories: the fairy tales and stories of our family ever since day one. I don't try to hide the fact that I was adopted at birth. I fall in the "adopted and proud of it" crowd and it stems from the fact that my mother who adopted me told me the exact same story every night every time I asked for it. It was the story of how she got me.
She would always tuck me in and sit on the edge of my bed. Sometimes I would snuggle up close next to her. Then she would start the story. She would tell how she and Daddy fell in love and got married in 1971. She started praying for a child because she could not have them and prayed nightly for a child for almost 11 years. Then one day, while she was at work, her friend that was a nurse in the hospital that I was born at called her and asked if she still wanted a baby girl. Mom of course said yes, and her friend said "Great! One was born in the hospital that morning" and I would always chime in "was it me?" even though I knew that it was. She would always say "yes it was". Then she would continue and say that they had to prepare a room for me because I was a big surprise. They had to turn my daddy's hobby room, which had a lot of airplanes and comic books, into a baby's nursery quickly. So they got everything as quick as they could and finally brought me home 5 days later. She would then tell me that the mother whose tummy I came from loved me so much that she gave me up for adoption to give me a better life than what she could provide for me at the time. She also said that even though I didn't grow in her tummy she would always love me as if I had and that would never change.
This was the story that I heard for the first two years of my life. Then it changed a little and Mom added the part where we got my little sister. She would tell me and her that once they got me, they started praying for a little brother or a little sister for me so I would have a sibling. Then 23 months later, which she would say two years so we could understand it, our grandfather called and asked if they still wanted a little sibling for me, which they said yes. He said "great we have a little girl that was just born" that day. So we made the trip to TX and picked up my little sister who slept in a laundry basket that first night because my grandfather did not have a crib for her. Mom always made sure to answer all of our questions as she was telling us that bedtime story. She made sure we knew just how loved we were by both sets of our parents: our birth parents and our adopted parents. She also made sure that we knew when we wanted to search for them she would support us and help us look when we were ready. Out of all of the stories I've heard over the years, that first bedtime story will always be my favorite. Do you have a favorite bedtime story like this one that fills you with warmth and Love and Hope?
With that, until next time, enjoy the stories you're told and Keep Cooking with Character!
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