PCA Teacher Hunt

Last night the PCA secondary school students went on a teacher hunt at Chinook Centre in Calgary. The idea is that various teachers dress up in some costume and the students try to find them as they walk around the mall and shop. I am not much of a dress-up person (or a shopper!) yet I wanted to try to be involved in some way in a outside-of-school event. My wonderful wife had the excellent idea of "dressing up" as a young child and sitting in the children's section of Chapters. So I wore my Calgary Flames hoodie and sat in the kid's books section of Chapters for the first hour or so. While there were lots of people at Chapters, none of the PCA students were searching for me there! I guess they get enough of books during the school day!

It was amazing to sit and look through different children's books... esp now that Sarah and I are expecting our first baby in just over three months time. I found a new series about a kid named Brady Brady that seemed to teach some good lessons - and it related to hockey and sports so I was interested in that. Of course I also saw a number of Robert Munsch books... a name I'm familiar with for many books, but especially for the story, "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always. As long as I'm living, my baby you'll be." My friends Stan & Lynay Parker read that book to her son Christopher when he was little and then wrote a song to it and she and Christopher sang it just before they moved on from the Prairie Tabernacle to begin serving at Campbell River Baptist Church.

But what really got me was seeing the "Curious George" collection. Its just as well that none of the PCA students did come searching for me because as soon as I started reading Curious George goes to Hospital I could feel my eyes welling up with tears. You see, my amazing parents did everything possible to help their young Steven prepare for hospitals and surgery when I was young. And since we'd been in Africa for almost 3 years before coming back to Canada, the Curious George collection was another "connection" point. Yes, mom & dad Ibbotson prayed with me and committed my life and the doctor's hand and the surgery to Jesus. And as I grew older I liked Math and did not like reading as much. And yet I have very distinct... and obviously fond memories... of sitting with mom or dad and reading Curious George books (and others) as a way my parents used to try to explain to a 3-4-5 year old that hospitals and operations were not something to be scared of and that God would take care of me even if mom or dad were not there in the operating room (cuz they were there any other time). I remember later as our family began to adopt... first my sister, Ruth, then my sister Sara, etc that we also had books about Why Was I Adopted that could try to help Ruth and Sara understand what adoption was in basic terms. And so, all those memories flooded back last night as I sat in the children's book section of Chapters at Chinook Centre!

So thanks mom and dad for reading to us as kids, and for doing all you could to explain a complex world of strange situations to each of us through the use of stories. Your thoughtful and intentional parenting is such a rich blessing and heritage for me as I begin my life as a parent.