Angel Sightings

About a week ago we had an interesting occurrence around here. My mom was staying with us for the week while I got back into the work routine. She and Jayden were playing in the living room while I was making dinner one night. I was sort of listening to what was going on and I faintly heard Jayden asking "Who's that?" I assumed he was at the window asking Nana who someone was that he was seeing outside. He asked it again and I hear Nana asking Jayden "Who's who, Jayden?" 

And then she asks ME, "Nichole, is there someone upstairs?" 

Instantly my heart jumps a little and startled, I say "No!" and quickly walk over to where Jayden is now standing, by the stairs. 

Pointing up. 

He's still asking, "Who's that?" When I ask him, the same question my mom has been asking, "Who's who?" he replies, "Man." 

Well I'm still slightly puzzled about what's going on, but Nana, who's had time to process what's going on, is extremely concerned and bordering on frightened. My mom tells me that Jayden seems to be seeing someone upstairs, A MAN, and I should go look up there! I am feeling mildly horrified at that idea and when she suggests that we go outside instead, I jump at the idea and grab Ava and make a beeline for the door. My mom grabs Jayden and her phone and we take off. 

Once outside, we're not really sure what to do. DJ is not due home for hours and the male neighbors that we know aren't home yet either. I call DJ, tell him what's going on but he's in the middle of practice and can't come home.

We hang up. 

I tell my mom to go stand at the side of the house (we're currently at the back of the house in the car) and I'm afraid if there IS someone in the house, they could just escape out the front door so I want her to watch the front door. I'm about ready to call the police to see if they can just send a car over when DJ calls back and tells me that a friend of ours, a man, is headed to our house to check things out. 

Thank goodness! And on the other hand, Oh great... 

because I realize that I feel slightly crazy that I am listening to my two year old who, I've read, is developing an imagination and believing that he actually saw a man in our house when I know this is just not logical. I was, after all, just upstairs working and there was really no way for someone to get upstairs AND we can hear when people are walking around on the second floor and it was quite still when we were inside a bit ago. 

Nevertheless I start quizzing him about who or what he might have seen. I try not to lead the questioning but if you've ever asked a two year old questions, you know it's easier to go with yes and no questions however unreliable they might be.

"What did you see Jayden"
"A man."
What did the man look like?"
"Ummmmm..."
"Did he have dark hair like Daddy's?"
Ummmm....
Did he have blond hair like....um....(I can think of NO ONE with blond hair that Jayden would have a good memory of...) "Oh! Did he have blond hair like Miss Kylie?" (His daycare teacher.)
"Yeah!" Interesting...
Then I see if he is just saying yes to everything.
"Did you see Mickey Mouse?"
"Yeah!" Ha, this is getting nowhere. And yet...
I ask him again, "What did you see upstairs?"
"Big man."
A big man??

Our friends drive up at that point (the man's wife had picked him up from work so the whole family - wife and kids -- were privy to this crazy scenario) and I get out of the car to inform them that we are officially crazy but would he please satisfy our crazy and go upstairs to check things out. These friends of ours are seriously the nicest friends we have here in town and without hesitation, he heads in. Unarmed. I am thinking, I really should have armed him with at least a golf club!

When he comes back out a while later, he, of course, tells us that no one was up there. He checked the closets, under the bed, in all the rooms (my dirty bathroom, eek!!), behind the doors and he's sure there is no one up there. So they leave. We head back inside. And we naturally continue talking about what happened.

Jayden keeps saying that he saw a man or a big man upstairs whenever we ask him. AND, what I didn't mention before was that my mom had been videoing him when they were playing and she happen to catch bits of when Jayden first saw "the man." We watched that several times and this is what we have concluded,

Jayden saw an angel! 

A real life angel, with wings. Or not. I did ask Jayden if the man had wings and he did say yes but I'm not really sure he would even know what wings would look like. Other than bird wings.

Here are the facts that convinced us that he actually did see an angel:

(1) he saw a man;
(2) it was a big man;
(3) he was not afraid of a big man;
(4) Jayden is afraid of most, if not all, men, big or small, when he first meets them;
(5) Jayden did not hurry to me or my mom when he saw the man, he followed him; and
(6) Jayden continued to talk about the man, in a non frightened way, for the next day or so.

I have to admit, the whole thing freaked me out just a little. At first, I didn't think that it could be an angel because God wouldn't do something to scare us. I mean, we were completely freaked out. But I don't believe in ghosts. And I do believe that Jayden saw something. And then I thought about Mary, as in the mother of Jesus, and how she was frightened when the angel first appeared to her and I suddenly felt a little more "in the know" about what Mary must have felt when that angel appeared. It took me a couple of days to get over the eebie jeebies of feeling like someone was in every room with me and just about to suddenly appear. I really didn't like being scared, knowing that angels aren't something to be scared of, but come on! having something just suddenly appear in a room, is just not something we are used to in this world so naturally, I would be scared.

I have decided, and this is what I told Jayden the next morning when he mentioned the man again, that God sent an angel to Jayden and the angel is there to protect him. It is a special thing to be able to see the angel and there was nothing to be scared of. 

Oh the life of a toddler, what an adventure!!