Zachariah & Grandma Linda

We first laid eyes on Zachariah in early 2001 when he was only a few weeks old. John laid little Zachariah in my husband's arms and said, "Here's your first grandchild".

A precious bit of life snuggled deep in several soft blankets with a sweet baby face that bore a small cleft lip and palate . It was love at first sight.

But, as too often happens these days, relationships changed, families separated and reformed into new ones. We lost contact with little Zachariah for several years.

This Christmas, Zachariah returned to spend the day and he asked if he could spend the night. Grandma and grandpa were delighted to pull out the sleeper and put on our granny hats. Little Zach checked in with his mother several times (on grandma's cell phone), but otherwise played with his presents, chattered like a little monkey and entertained us better than any TV program ever could! It was like he had never been away.

His first request after giving me a hug was that 'grandma' download some music for his new MP3 player. A-hemm. I told him 'maybe after supper'. Of course, he did not forget the promise, and I could not come up with another excuse for I've-never-done-this-before.

"So Zack. Do you spell your name with a H or a K?" I asked as I zinged all over the Internet trying to figure out how to download music without spreading a thousand viruses throughout my computer.

"I spell it with a H, grandma."

"What kind of music are you hoping we can find for the MP3 player?"

"Rap. If it has only two bad words, my mom won't mind too much."

"Well, Zach spelled-with-a-h, grandma has three rules for downloading music. I'm not going to pay for it. I'm not going to jail for doing it, and we can't have any bad words in it."

As I searched Google for "free rap music to download", we 'listened' to some FREE RAP songs only long enough for me to quickly hit the ESC key on the computer. Is there NOTHING sacred anymore?!!!!

Zach patiently waited and leaned on the computer table for almost an hour while we listened and I deleted. Finally, he quietly agreed that maybe he would be satisfied with something Country. Much better selection, but I couldn't find anything FREE in the country music section. (Did I say I've never done this before?)

One thing I love about Zach is that he is a little chatterbox. He told me stories while I was searching the Internet that made me laugh and almost cry at the same time. I stopped to take some notes on what he was saying until he noticed what I was writing. (Very smart!!)

He asked what day it was and when I told him it was Friday, he said, "Good. I go home on Saturday, and I'll be at home so I can go to church on Sunday."

A bit taken back, I asked if he went to church with his mommy but he informed me that a bus picks him up. He proceeded to explain that he has four fathers. (Don't get mad at me, I'm just reporting what a child told me.) He said, "These are my four fathers. My mother's boyfriend, my 'real father' who lives in Tennessee, and my dad who thinks he's my father 'cause he was there when I was born, and my father up in heaven."

The real world from the lips of a child...

He also told me that he talks to God and sometimes God talks to him.

"What does God say to you?" I asked.

"He asked me if I spell my name with a H or a K. I told him I thought he knew everything, but if he didn't already know, I spell it with a H."

Honesty from the lips of a child...

Later I asked Zach if he knew any songs from church that we might could download onto his MP3. He quickly told me that his favorite song at church is "Happy Birthday, Jesus" and started singing it to me. (All one note.)

Well ladies and gentlemen, we found that song on the Internet and as we listened, he jumped up and down excitedly.

"That's my church. I hear me singing in that song. I also hear my friend who won first place on the stage, and I won first place not on stage." (You figure out that one!)

We were able to download that very song to his MP3 player- straight from his own church - according to Zach. And grandma doesn't care is she goes to jail for copyright violations. Later, he fell asleep listening to "Happy Birthday, Jesus" and singing a bit off key as one does when wearing ear plugs.

By the way, ask Zach what he wants to be when he grows up. He doesn't hesitate a split second.

"I'm going to be five things. A farmer because I love animals. A policeman. A fireman. A lawyer and a 'millio-nare' so I can give all my money to the poor. And when I run out of money, I'm going to work as a lawyer until I earn more money to give to the poor."

I believe that God knew all along how Zach spells his name..

Take Care on the Journey,
~Linda

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