A misunderstanding

Tonight we went out to an Italian restaurant for sandwiches. They had a big picture of the facade of St. Peter's Basilica that was backlit by flourescent lights, one of which was flickering. Annalivia was fascinated by the picture and kept talking about how she wanted to see it someday because she was sure it had secrets in it. It was fun to talk about it and see her so excited. Eventually, I said something like, "Someday, Annalivia, when Mommy and Daddy stop having children, we'll go visit all those places, ok?" She smiled and I thought that was the end of it.

But, about an hour later, we were driving away from Wal-Mart when Annalivia asked me why we would stop having children. I replied that someday God would decide we were done having children and that would be that. She was silent for a moment and then said in a very, very sad, small voice, "But I'm really going to miss you!"

Needless to say, I explained that I meant that someday we would not have any new children and that she's our child forever. But she took some convincing. Poor thing.