People always say, “If I had to do it all over again…” I am one of those people that gets to. We have 4 biological “grown” children and two little boys, Sam and Charlie, that we adopted as infants.
The “new batch” are now 6 and 8. And they don’t believe in the Easter bunny. Perhaps this will be met with jeers. I know, it is a fun tradition. But I have two reasons for why we have done things differently the second time around.
The first reason is that I need these boys to trust me. Their stories are very different, and frankly, I am their only “source” for the truth of their past. And believe me, I understand tradition and rights of passage, but at the end of the day, I am a fun mom, and I am responsible for facts too.
And the second part transpired when our third oldest child, Luke was about 8 years old. He heard from someone at school that Santa Claus wasn’t real. He was devastated. So, we sat down to talk, I assumed it would be the same conversation I had with his older siblings, “it is just a tradition, it is the spirit of Christmas that matters…” Yada, yada, yada.
But Luke, being Luke said something that changed everything about what I believed about the tradition. He said, “Did you lie about Jesus too?”
And of course, I said, “WELL NO!?!”
But my credibility had been damaged.
When I really stopped to think about it, a bunny delivering treats in the night to celebrate the brutal death and resurrection of a man born of a virgin, made everything seem less than plausible.
My husband’s argument was, “This is just how it is done! We don’t want them to miss out on the fun of the fantasy.” But I did, and I do. We still do all the fun things associated with the Easter Bunny. We dye eggs and hide candy, but what I don’t want to be reasonable for is dividing my children’s hearts. And I do not say this with an ounce of piety, everyone has a different story. But for me, it is more exciting as their mother to get to tell them this amazing story of a Savior, willing to die while we still sinned so that we could live a life abundant.
And it did change the “feel” of Easter as it was compared to the early days of my parenting journey some 24 years ago. But not in a negative way at all. Both Christmas and Easter weren’t meant to be celebrated with Jesus as the secondary concept, He is the entirety. And while traditions are fun, I don’t ever want to convey the message that they were meant to fane celebration. There is a real reason we celebrate, no matter how far fetched it sounds.
So we will bake cookies, decorate eggs, and there will be a hunt. We will laugh and celebrate. And we will know exactly why and Who we are celebrating. What a delightful time.
Jami Amerine is an author, speaker, and artist. Jami and her husband Justin live in the North Houston area. Together they have 6 children ranging in age from 24 to 6. Justin and Jami are advocates of foster care and adoption. To learn more about Jami her books and art visit sacredgroundstickyfloors.com
