The Rescuers is a book about two mice rescuing an orphan girl named Penny from a raging red head bent on finding diamonds. They are successful, of course, but in the end she is not reunited with her parents and family because she has none.
Let's remember that in our house the large frying pan must be snuggled with the small frying pan because they are mother and baby. So the fact that Penny is still without a mother even after her traumatic adventure is too much for Echo, just too painful. So one night after bucketfulls of hugs and:
"I know you're really sad. You want Penny to be with her mom. Oh wow you're really sad!",
with no end in sight to the tears, we got out of bed and found the pens, scissors, and glue. I squeezed a mom in between Penny and the newsman (who is acting as a papa).
Sometimes empathy can look like this, not the "right" series of words thrown at a crying child, but a way of seeing them and their world, a way of being with them through their struggles, and in this case literally crafting a solution.
