777

Joshua: When my phone gets plugged in to service, how can I call Heaven so I can talk to Tiff?

Mommy: I think Heaven's phone number is 777.

Joshua: Like this? 77777777777777

Mommy: Yeah, just like that.

Joshua has one of our old cell phones that can still be plugged in and take a charge. It holds the charge for about 2 minutes before it powers down.

He often wants to call his favorite people using this phone, and I have to tell him that he has to use the house phone if he really wants to talk to them. His phone doesn't have service. You have to pay for that.

So, when Josh's phone "gets plugged in to service," he has some people, and tadpoles, that he would like to talk with.

I remember when the best dog in the world, Duke, died, William was a little boy...maybe just a little older than Josh is now. He asked, too, what Heaven's phone number was. Then, usually when I was driving, I would hear this little whispered voice in the seat behind me talking to Duke. Duke told William all kinds of things.

As we get older, you realize that you can't call Heaven using 777.
But even age can't keep you from wishing that you could.