Stuck in a tree

I scraped the sweet potatoes off of the cutting board with my knife, plopping them into the pot of boiling water, and then peaked out of the window again at Spencer and Kate. They were standing on the wide lowest branch of the century old Catalpa tree. It looked as if they were watching the place where the sun had dropped behind the mountain just a few minutes before. I thought I could see Spencer's arm around Kate's shoulder. How sweet. They're watching the sunset together, I thought to myself and returned to the sink to rinse the knife and cutting board.

As I rinsed I was thinking how nice it was to have them playing hard outside up until dinnertime. I pictured them coming in tired, cold, hungry and completely happy to see me with warm grub. I remember doing that when I was a kid.

I looked out again and they were still standing there on that lowest branch. Man, they must be having fun, they've been up there for like an hour. Then I noticed that the ladder was on the ground, not leaning up against the branch like it had been. Hmm.

I slipped on my shoes, walked out the back door and down the driveway to the tree.

"Do you need some help?" I asked as I was walking under the branch. Then I saw their faces. They looked cold and a little anxious.

"Did you hear us?" Spencer asked me. You could tell his mouth was cold as it didn't seem to want to open all the way.

"No, I didn't. I've been watching you from the window though, and noticed the ladder was down."

"We were calling you. The ladder fell down. We said 3 prayers!"

They were scared.

I hefted the old wooden barn ladder and propped it up against the branch. Kate came down first, then Spencer. They both gave me a really big hug. Their jackets and cheeks were cold against me. We all held hands as we walked back to the house.

It was a big deal to them. They talked about it for a while, analyzing the dynamics of their predicament. Spencer had knocked the ladder down on purpose so he could see if he could pull it back up again with a small log that he had tied to a rope. That is so Spencer. But obviously he couldn't pull it back up, and they were stranded up there.

He drew a picture of the situation.

I was proud of them for praying. Not every 7-year-old boy would think to do that. 3 times.

Later, as Spencer, Katelyn, and Ezra were playing in the loft in Spencer's room, I thought of something. We forgot to say thank you. I went into Spencer's room and got their attention.

"We forgot something." I began. They all looked down at me from the loft, quite attentive. "When you said your prayer what did you ask for?"

"That you would hear us," Spencer said.

"And that we would get down safely," added Kate.

"Did He answer your prayer?"

"Yes," they both chimed.

"Then we need to say thank you."

"Thank you, Mommy."

"Well, I was thinking more of saying thank you to Heavenly Father."

"Okay, guys," Spencer said to Kate and Ezra as he knelt down, still in the loft. They followed his example, as is so often the case in everything with them. And he said a sweet, short prayer saying thank you. We all said, "Amen," and Spencer smiled down at me. It did my heart good.