Kindergarten is a tough year. Especially when you go all day.
Add to that a baby brother -- who you LOVE -- being born during the third week of the school year, and it's no wonder you've had your fair share of tears and mornings you just wanted to stay home.
Can I tell you a secret? Most of those mornings, I would have loved to have kept you at home with Nicholas and me. I remember telling you shortly after he was born that although you couldn't stay home and hold him all you wanted to then, you would have lots of time when summer came. You said to me amidst tears that once summer came, he wouldn't want you to hold him like he did when he was a new baby.
You were right. I don't know how you knew that, but you were right, and it broke my heart.
Kindergarten has been a very good year, too. You love your teacher. It was her first year, but she's won your heart, and she's won mine as well.
I took this picture of you two on a recent field trip. As we looked through my camera later that day, you said, "My arms felt jiggly when you took the picture, and they still feel jiggly now!"
Oh, to be a kindergarten teacher, and to have these precious little ones acting like a picture with you is akin to a middle-schooler getting their picture taken with Taylor Swift!
Your favorite past-time this year has been closing the door to the den and playing school. You do NOT want anyone else in there with you, because then you get embarrassed. But there are glass doors, and it's not soundproof, so we all see you with your books and pens and paper. And I've heard you on you "cellphone" (an old walkie-talkie) talking to the principal about various students in your class. Even your nine-year-old brother can't help but look at me, suppress a giggle, smile, and say, "She's so cute!"
But life is busy with five children in the house, and sometimes you feel the crunch of being little, but no longer the littlest. So I was very thankful when, last week, you had the chance to have not just one, but two very special days.
First was your field trip to the Shrine of the Little Flower near Detroit, and to the Detroit Zoo. I wasn't sure if I should take Nicholas on such a long day, but I am so glad we shared in those special places with you. You are my third child to go on these field trips, but because I always had too many little ones at home to make the trip feasible, I've never been able to go before.
So I'd never seen the Shrine. And oh, I was missing out!
The outside architecture is so powerful, and the artwork inside tells beautiful stories I want impressed on your heart -- and on mine too! Like this carving, in which our Blessed Mother is holding the Baby Jesus, and handing rose petals to St. Therese, who is dropping them to Earth with her other hand. Before she died, St. Therese promised, "After my death I will let fall a shower of roses. I will spend my Heaven doing good on earth."
Do you know how much this reminds me of shortly after I learned I was pregnant with you (nine months after having Luke)? When the rose bush I'd gotten for my first Mother's Day five years earlier -- which had never given us more than a couple flowers -- suddenly burst out in amazing glory with dozens of them? My heart felt so comforted -- this child is from God. A joy. A precious gift. You still love to see pictures of those roses, and I still love to look at them too. (Of course, we found out later that Daddy had emptied a bottle of fertilizer on the roses during the Spring, but that's okay; God loves speaking to us through natural means!)
Then we were on to the zoo, where you were once again so confident and proud of taking charge of your baby brother. You had pulled your hair back specifically to keep it from getting grabbed by crocodiles in the reptile house.
The day was full of fun, and smiles, and watching you be silly with friends, and being glad to see polar bears and rhinoceroses, but especially being glad to see (and listen to) you.
The next night, I took you to a ballet recital, where we met one of your dear friends and her mom (who is my dear friend). We went simply to see something you love (ballet), with a friend you love, while doing something else you love (getting dressed up).
I couldn't leave Nick for too long, but it was long enough for us to be together, and for me to once again listen to your questions, and thoughts, and everything to which I wish I always had time to pay such close attention.
And now, tonight you are at your grandparents' cottage with your cousin (what a week!), and I miss your smiles, your hugs, your helpfulness, your reminders of how much you love us all. If you ever see anything in the world that makes you long to be anything other than who you are, please remember that God knew who we needed, and it was you.
He knew what kind of heart this world needed, and it was yours.
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| The base of a Sacred Heart statue at the Shrine of the Little Flower. There is no better place for our hearts to be than united with Him. |
Honestly, some times I look at you -- and at each of my children -- and find myself wondering, "This is such an amazing person! How do we deserve this amazing person in our family?" And the answer is, we don't. But God blessed us with you anyway. So we'll keep loving you the best we can while digging deeply into His grace, and we'll keep being so thankful He did!
Love,
Mommy
P.S. I thought you might enjoy some more pictures from our day!
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