I Love Her...

Photo by Lizzie Carter

 From 6 months of age,  I knew this girl had the gift of sunshine in her heart.

"She will persist in happiness," I thought to myself one day.  This, no doubt, is a Divinely given gift.

And her imagination?  Another of her gifts, which is so big she can barely contain it.  It runs wild and at a pace with which she can barely keep up.  She is constantly purging ideas and dreams.  I will find mounds of paper and stacks of  filled notebooks and journals and pens, all collecting under her bed.  She writes and writes...stories, plays, songs.  She's written two lullabies for the baby already.

Ada is so imaginative, in fact,  she can hardly get a thing done.  "Distracted" is a ridiculous understatement.

I am often not patient (or very kind) about this.  And lately, I've come to just barking all the time at her.  She is constantly in a dream world and it takes forEVER to get anything done.  Homework, picking up a mess, hanging up her coat.

Lately, I am making a concerted effort to be patient.  I am seeing this girl does much better with requests that come with a little glitter and sunshine.  And she loves to do good and be good.  I am working on holding my tongue and waiting just - a - moment -

Because what drives me crazy is also what I absolutely love about her.  

Today, I sent her outside to throw away some garbage.  She was cleaning her room.  Several minutes had passed and she hadn't returned, so I went upstairs and peeked out the back door.

She was wandering around in the backyard, head up to the sky, and I could tell by the way her mouth was moving that she was singing a song to herself.  She bent down to pick something up.  It was a marble.  She held it up to the sunlight, squinted one eye, an looked through the glowing glass with the other - still singing to herself.  It was a sunny, 60 degree day in February and  I could hardly blame her for taking her time. 

I didn't call her in.  Instead I just watched her for a while.  Her freshly washed, crazy messy curls all around her head.  Her chunky glasses.  She is growing so tall, maybe taller than her brother.  She was so happy in her moment, so sweet.

I adore her.

Sam was watching along side me.  "We are lucky.  She may be the only girl we ever have," he said.  "I love everything about her.  I wouldn't change one thing about that girl."

Another photo by Lizzie Carter

I agree.