Few and Far Between

There are those wonderful seemingly rare occasions when neither Eric nor I have any commitments on a weeknight and we both get to stay home the whole evening. One of those nights was last week.

We had eaten dinner, the girls had finished their homework, and we actually had some free time before we needed to get the kids ready for bed. We were all just doing our own thing when I noticed that I hadn't seen Mierae for a while. I had seen her go upstairs to her room, so I decided to go check on her.

She was sitting on her floor with a thoughtful look on her face. I sat down next to her and asked what was on her mind. Then I waited.

She opened up to me slowly, but then let all her thoughts come out. She was struggling with some things at school. She missed the way things were done at her old school. She missed her friends--her best friends from Columbus. She was nervous about fitting in and meeting new expectations.

Because she is not vulnerable like this very often, it was such a sweet moment for me to sit there with her, to hug her, console her, share my own childhood stories about switching to a new school and not having any friends, and talk heart to heart with her.

I remembered this little moment that night as I was saying my prayers, thinking about what I was thankful for that day.

A makeover from her cousins the weekend before.

It was the best part of my day.