My sisters are in Haiti

Last week I was driving several children into DC to attend a Kennedy Center school performance.  Among the children were my two boys.  As young children often do, the conversations was a period of questions and answers about families.  None of it was of much interest until I heard Silas describing his family to a friend.  "That's my brother James,"  he points to James.  And I have two big sisters who are at the Hinces house today.  And I have two sisters who are in Haiti."  It made me nearly stop on the highway.  I was so touched by the way everything is black and white in his world.  Of course he has sisters in Haiti.  The way he stated it so frankly, though, was striking to me.  It made it sound as if they are just away on vacation.  They are often not real in my mind, but for him, they are real and accounted for, just not yet present in our car or at our dinner table.