We met friends for yesterday's memorial service for Cheryl (see previous post). The friends consisted of: one dad, pastor of a church in Lexington, his six-year-old daughter and his three remaining quadruplets who are four. We were slightly outnumbered I thought.

They had driven the three and a half hours it took to get to the church for the service. Then after a potty break and hair repair we greeted the family.

Then off to IHOP for breakfast before the 1:00 PM service. At IHOP each of the four ordered and devoured kids' meals of pancakes, eggs and bacon and washed this down with orange juice. They never left their chairs, never begged to leave, just colored and drew and ate.

Back to the service. We found seats conducive to a quick exit for dad should the need arise. Each of us sat between kids (thinking back I should have been between Jim and whoever).

The service was lovely and fitting and an emotional look at Cheryl's life in Afghanistan coupled with a song she had written and sung to her teammates there. Many people spoke, lots of people actually, some with more stage presence than others, all with a deep appreciation for the life Cheryl had lived and the impact she had on them.

However, the service, which started at 1:00 PM was not finished until 3:30 PM. Long by any standards.

You are know wondering what the little ones were doing all this time.

First they colored, carefully placing crayons back in the tub so as to minimize noise; the six-year-old, read the program of the service a couple of times, and then after coloring and drawing, they curled up and listened to the speakers. No one fell asleep, no one whined to go potty, no one fidgeted (outside of me and Jim and we were held at bay by the kids' behavior); not one, "Are we almost done?" (except again from Jim who mouthed the words to me over the tops of attentive heads).

Parenting is an art, a calling, a career and a passion. Doing it well takes commitment. Our friends have all of that and this has produced the kids I have written about in this post. Amazing. I can't wait to see what each of them does with their life. And oh, did I mention that one of the kids' middle name is Patricia....she may be my favorite.

And that's what I think about it.