If I live to be one hundred, I hope and pray never to have another night/morning like this last one. Two of my three children came not once, but twice (each!) to our room in the middle of the night. One of whom, somehow managed to “slip and fall and have a pee-pee accident” during one of the visits. Why do I doubt the veracity of this? It’s exactly how she claimed to have the last accident. Same exact spot, same exact scenario, two “accidents,” two days, both under suspicious circumstances (and no one else has “slipped” in this spot!).

So, Mama was pretty cranky and on edge today. Not to mention that we were expecting a room full of people for a homeschool class this morning (one we’ve had before, with people we all knew). So, while fixing my daughter’s hair this morning, I just began talking to her about how difficult this whole “accident” thing has been. She told hubby this morning that they are not accidents (something we have long known). So as I spoke to her I asked her what she was gaining by these toileting choices. First off, the “bad men” she’s terrified of have no clue as to where she is. Even if they did, (and they don’t), would a kid peeing in her pants somehow hurt them? (I understand the “making yourself unattractive to predators” issue, and that wasn’t the question). Is it helping her, somehow, by doing this? Is it helping her Dad and I?

The answer to all these, is, of course, no. So, (and I freely admit that I was so zonked and tired, I began to cry), I told her that it wasn’t helping…her, us, anybody. I asked her to think of something that could *really* help. She said, “Pray!” And, though we’ve discussed that before with her, this time it seemed to click. I hugged her. I hugged her really hard. And with tears streaming down my face, I told her how much we love her and how we don’t plan on letting anyone hurt her. She cried a little, too. But, all day long, she stuck to me like glue. She wanted to sit in my lap. She wanted me to “hug [her] like this morning, really hard.”

We went the whole day without a toileting issue.

At bedtime devotional, we reminded her of the solution she brainstormed. I’m really hopeful that we’ve turned a corner.

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