I love being an auntie. (And that includes being an honorary one.)

As a childless woman, I never developed the ability that parents seem to have of being able to tune kids out. Nor have I developed the ability to brush off their many questions with quick snappy answers. And because I don't appear to be capable of mastering that skill any time soon, I'm going to have to keep on my toes from this point forward if the kids in my life are any indication.

I only see my nieces and nephews together once a year, if that, so this time is especially precious to me. The last time was two years ago, in fact. The memory of the visit still makes me laugh. After an afternoon of checking out baby toads we went tooling around in my "Slug Bug" and ended up having quite a question fest.

At first the questions went like this:

"Auntie Laura! Guess what?!"

"What?"

"Monkey Butt!!!"

Insert hysterical laughter here....

They then progressed to:

"Okay, would yooooouuuu raaather maaaaarrrrryyyy Sponge Bob or Patrick?!"

"Ewww!"

More hysterical laughter followed by the girls both getting lost in thought and making up songs about being rock stars (in little peanut voices). Before long, Hannah was singing songs about Jesus that she had learned in Vacation Bible School.

As we passed by a housing construction site, the girls commented that those men building all those houses must really need a rest sometimes.

Corinne considered, "But they can't rest because if someone calls them up after they get home and says 'We need more houses!' they just have to go."

Hannah adds, "They probably just say "Oh please God, not another call for more houses! Oh please God, I just need a rest!"

Corinne: "Auntie Laura! Hannah just said something but that's not how you pray!"

That's when the real questions started to come out...

Auntie Laura, how do you pray?

Auntie Laura, how does God answer your prayers?

Auntie Laura, what is Heaven like?

Auntie Laura, when you die, how does God get you to take you to Heaven? Can you see him?

I'm not on the mailing list for that Big Book of Answers to Tough Questions that I'm sure must be out there somewhere so I stammered around and gave answers that left us all very unsatisfied (mumblings about magic and invisibility and kinda like the tooth fairy and that God loves it when we sing and vague trailing off sentences to give Hannah the opportunity to save me by giving Corinne what she had learned from VBS).

This year I've gotten some warning shots...being chosen as a mentor adult by Monique to talk about my views on premarital sex...little ones asking me about God answering our prayers...Jacob pulling me aside IMMEDIATELY upon my arrival to tell me about an "incident" (which was just about an airport fiasco, whew)...and because I am an adult who really LISTENS to the kids (and they know it) I know that I am going to be on the short list of grown ups to talk to when questions get even tougher.

I take my role in the lives of the kids I know very seriously (monkey butts, aside).

This has me thinking about the legacy we are giving them. That I am giving them. What answers am I giving? What lessons am I teaching? What can I give them that will help them for their own journeys.

As my husband Scott said to me later, there were so many questions they haven't asked yet...questions about war...terrorism...policies...bloodshed. Our children here, so many of them, are so sheltered from the world. How do I answer questions about God that will hold up when they get to the point that they can look around them and see what a mess is being made of things in "His Name"?