Poor Darin!

All morning long, Ellie has been asking me questions about her uncle. Our conversation has gone something like this:
Ellie: "Mom, does Darin work?"
Me: "Yes."
Ellie: "Then how come he doesn't have any money?"
Me: "He has money."

15 minutes later:
Ellie: "Mom, how much money does Darin have?"
Me: "I don't know, why?"
Ellie: "Why can't he buy things?"
Me: "He can buy things."


15 minutes later:
Ellie: "Mom, it's sad that Darin doesn't work very much."
Me: "Ellie, Darin does work."
Ellie: "But not enough to have stuff, huh?"

FINALLY I clued in. Last night we had literacy night at the elementary school. I was in charge of the service project where we collected school supplies for a low-income school in Salt Lake. It just so happens, that Haylee teaches at said school, so when the packets were all put together we dropped them off at their apartment. Haylee wasn't home at the time, so Darin helped us carry all of the school packets inside.
When I was organizing and shopping for all of the supplies, I had told Ellie repeatedly that none of it was for us--that it was all for people who didn't have enough money to buy it themselves. When we gave it to Darin, Ellie assumed it was all for him, and has been worried about him ever since.
I explained where everything was actually going, and Ellie seemed very relieved that her uncle was not so poor that he couldn't even buy himself crayons!