Aslynn's Imaginary Friends

Faith has been begging me to post this, so I thought I should. I had to get the story right because this isn't first hand information. Names have been changed to protect the identities of the innocent. Not. (Sorry, for the "not", we just did an '80s karaoke night with a bunch of couples from the seminary.)

Aslynn has been going to a playtime on Friday mornings lately. She came back disappointed and told us that her friends weren't there. Faith tried to reason with and comfort her. So she had Aslynn list the friends that weren't there, and then proceeded to have Aslynn name the ones who were there, including her new friends. As she was listing the people who weren't there, she came up with two non-existent people.

The only explanation for this is this: Aslynn has two imaginary friends named Hailey and Kayley. They often go places with her, so it isn't unusual for Aslynn to ask Faith if they can come to town, go to church, or do other things with her. We don't really encourage her having imaginary friends because she may mistake them for real friends and ignore her real friends for the imaginary ones. This is Aslynn, after all. Who knows. Her imaginary friends sometimes alert us to mischief she may have been in during the day, but usually the finger gets pointed at Judah for that (they like to gang up on him - Aslynn, Hailey, and Kayley, I mean).

So Faith asked why Hailey and Kayley weren't at playschool. Did they stay at home?

"They're not here."

"Oh? Where are they Aslynn?" (We were expecting the zoo or pool or something like that)
"They're in heaven."

"What are they doing in heaven, Aslynn?"

"They're keeping Grandma Guynup company."

Of course, this was of course all very matter-of-fact and didn't-you-know-that-Mommy kind of talk. Apparently Hailey and Kayley can come and go as they please to and from heaven. I think I just recently told Aslynn that she didn't need to be praying for Grandma Guynup anymore because she's with Jesus. Of course she figured that Grandma Guynup must be sad if Aslynn isn't there, so she sent the next best thing to comfort her.


Also, Aslynn figures she came from heaven at one point. She argues that she must have been around when Micah was little, but she can't seem to find herself in the pictures. She can't imagine not being around. Therefore, Mommy and Daddy either abandoned her somewhere or she was in heaven. How do you teach a four-year-old imagination about birth, existence, and have them understand that there was a time that they weren't there? She thinks that she remembers everything, including stories that we tell about Micah from when he was born and our travels with him to and from Philadelphia and New York. Anyone have any suggestions about how to break it to her?

- Mark