Are You Afraid Of Ghosts?

                                                         Hayden,   Madeline,   Grace  

My Madeline Claire Lois, named after her Grandmothers has always been an intuitive child. 

We knew she would be wicked smart at a very young age. Her memory is photographic and her opinions are many. When she was a baby at a young age of 11 months she seemed wise beyond her years.  Before she could eat by herself she would just stare intently at anyone who was using an instrument to feed themselves taking notes for when it was her turn to use a fork or a spoon.  At the age of 11 months she did just that when she grabbed Grandma's fork at a Black Angus and started eating a piece of grilled chicken like a grown up. No really I have a picture.  She always was a big girl fro the start, birth weight being close to 9 pounds. Once she started walking we could hear her bold footsteps as she played in her room. Matt and I had an inside joke when ever we heard her toddler footsteps barrel down the stairs of our then 3 story home. We would look at each other and say, "There's a grown man in the house." Her little voice was never really little at all. Madeline has a strong voice.  A friend once said  she sounded like Janis Joplin,  she nicked named Madeline, "Whisky and Cigarettes" Madeline has that scratchy deep Lauren Hutton voice already at the age 6. I always tell her that God has something great in store for her with that voice and she would be speaking to the masses when she is grown up.  

 After watching herself on the video camera one day, she began to cry. "What's the matter sweets?" I asked. 

"I sound like a booy!!!!" She screamed. I had to then show her examples of strong women with strong voices. Like Lauren Bacall, and Katherine

 Turner, the early years of course. Maya Angelou, and Janis Joplin. When I see a women who have the same husky tone I always point out to her how God used these women's voice to be heard in one way or another. (Psst..never used Demi Moore, that example might scare her.) Madeline was talking before she could talk, and to this day talks until her eyes close in her bed at night. 

Madeline started her education at a young age when we put her in a Montessori program at  18 months.   She continuously brings home A + papers, and is excelling in her studies this year in 1St grade. She has been noted as the best reader in her class. Along with that strong voice comes a strong  attitude. We call her the director. All of my children have been blessed with being capable of playing independently. Grace the 5 year old will play for hours alone, and Hayden the 4 year old, he always tells me politely, "Mom can you go?" while pointing towards the stair case. Not my Madeline, she absolutely likes to be a part of the crowd and will direct each play session as if she were directing a feature film. (hmmm I wonder where she got that?)  

 

                         MADELINE

OK, now this princess is name Josie and she is in 

charge of all the land, while the dog over here named

Charlotte......

GRACE

No that dog is named Wesley.......

MADELINE

  Well his name used to be Wesley until he went to my 

  kingdom then his named changed to Charlotte.

HAYDEN

But Charlotte is a girls name? 

MADELINE

Well I've got to tell you something, he is  only a girl when I'm playing.

If they don't comply she threatens to leave the game and well they couldn't live with that so Charlotte is blessed with being a female  for the next few hours 

 When I said earlier that Madeline was an intuitive child I wasn't kidding. Sometimes she will say things to me that just seem to have come out of an adults mouth. This has been happening since she was little, little. Like text book stuff!! 

One day we were in the heart of downtown Los Angels in one of the renovated old buildings turned into lofts. We had spent the whole afternoon there visiting a friend. When it was time to leave, I round up all the kids to start changing diapers and what not. Madeline was the only one fully potty trained at that time. I walked towards the bathroom and stood at the entrance and directed Madeline to come. She walked into the bathroom only to immediately jump out and hide behind the wall to the entrance of the bathroom. I started to get impatient as I thought she was ready to play a game. She was giggling and covering her face. "come on Madeline it's your turn to go to the bathroom." She shook her head "No." while still giggling, her cheeks blushed flushed with a red tone. "Come on Madeline you have to go to the restroom before we get back into the car, it's along drive to Orange County. Mommy already had a turn." I started to pull on her arm to bring her near the entrance which she was totally avoiding at the moment. "no mommy it's not my turn.....it's the man's turn." She started to laugh again. I looked at all of the men who were in the room which were 2, and they were staring at a Macbook  as if it were the Messiah at that moment. I tugged on her arm again....she pulled back again. "No mommy the man is going potty right now." Chills went up my spine.... She was still giggling "Where is the man and why are you laughing so hard?" She pointed towards the bathroom and said. "He's wearing a funny hat."  A little shocked, but not making a big deal out of it, I asked "What does the hat  look like?"  She motioned in a circular motion on top of her head, "It's black and really tall."  I looked into the absence space which was the unoccupied restroom, where this little girl was giggling at a man who apparently was in the bathroom. SO I shut the door. I mean shouldn't his man have some privacy? A few minutes later, I knocked on the door and said. "Anyone in there?" looked at Madeline when there wasn't a response, opened the door, and gave her the clearance to go in. She peeked around the corner first then went in and did her business. We never mentioned the man with the hat again.  A few more incidents like that have happened in her 3rd year of life.  All, we never really paid 

attention to them. Just taking mental notes for the future. 

One other time that inluded someone other than me or dad was when a Los Angeles based artist  named Wyatt Vandergeest http://wyattvandergeest.com/ came to the farm to paint a mural on the kids wall upstairs in our farm house.  After a days work he went golfing with my husband who came back and told me that Madeline had told Wyatt that there was a man in the window of their playroom. Wyatt was pretty freaked out. I had to investigate. I asked Madeline, "Wyatt said you saw a man in the window while he was painting how could that be? Our neighbors are 5 acres away and your playroom is on the second level of the house? Show me where you saw him." We went to the playroom and she walked to one of the windows, which happened to be near our 200 year old tree. She proceeded, "He was waving at us right here. He wanted to come in, and was trying to get us to open the window."  I continued "Well honey how could he be in the window? Was he on a ladder?"  Her answer...."No he was on a rope." 

So what do you do with that? Assume? Freak out? Pray? Get a dog and cat!! BINGO!! If there any creaks and cracks noises herd, I can always blame it on the cat. There is an Underground Railroad sight in the next town over, as well as an old pioneer school house that was used as an infirmary during the days of cholera. There is a rumor that a bunch of children's skeletal remains have been found there in the 70's.  Maybe that is why I awoke one night to the sounds of many children playing outside of my bedroom window in the dark of the night. Who knows.

 I am not afraid. I also will not watch any paranormal activities type programs while I'm in the house either, nor did I use my baby monitors when we moved in, fearing that it would pick up radio transmitted signals from a Ham Radio hobbyist  that would surly freak me out. FORGET IT!! When we first moved in and brought the kids here to the farm house, the first thing that popped out of Madeline's mouth was..."Is this place haunted?" Who knew she even knew what the word haunted meant? We never use it, and they were to young to watch Scooby Doo.. WHO KNOWS!! All I know, is if there was something here it's not here anymore. 

 One night after bath time when the kids were jumping into bed, Grace then 3, jumped on her bed happy as a clam, then suddenly started hysterically crying while she covered her eyes and pointing to the blank space which was their bedroom window. Frustrated that now I had to deal with a tantrum instead of reading a bed time story, I looked where 

ere she was pointing and simply screamed. "LEAVE US ALONE!! THIS IS OUR HOUSE! GO SEE THE LORD!" Like a raving lunatic. As soon as the last word came out of my mouth, Grace uncovered her eyes  looked in the space that was currently causing her to have an anxiety at

tack and simply rest her head on her pillow and went to sleep peacefully.  

We haven't had an incident since. Afraid to be here alone? No, not me. I've got the good Lord in my heart and I'm pretty intuitive myself. It's going to take a lot more than a few sightings to scare me. I'm a God fearing women, and if he thinks I need to be reached by the dead, we'll He'll just do what he always does, send them to me in a dream!