You see this sweet face?


Meet Amara.

I know you've "met" her before. But I want you to really meet her. She is quite possibly the sweetest, most selfless, most giving little girl I know.

Her Kindergarten class went to the pumpkin patch yesterday. It was COLD yesterday morning. They left at 8am, were gone til 1pm, and it really never warmed up throughout the day. I dressed her in a long sleeved t-shirt topped by a long sleeved sweater over which she wore the inner portion of her winter jacket (which made it the weight of a nice lined fall jacket). I also gave her a pair of those stretchy little gloves to wear, thinking I might be overdoing it a little. You never know with pumpkin patches though -- if there's no trees, the wind can be brutal.

Today I saw pictures of the day -- and it DID look chilly. So I asked her how it went, and if she stayed warm enough. She said, "Yeah, buy my hands were cold." I asked why her hands were cold when she had gloves; were they not warm enough? She said, "No, I let my friends take turns wearing them, because their hands were cold and none of them brought gloves."

I do believe my heart skipped a beat.

Today when I went to her Halloween party, her teacher walked by me and said, "Now you know who Kxxxxxxxx is." (he has the assigned seat across from Amara at the table.) He is over the moon about Amara. His life isn't that great and she is just so sweet and kind to him."

Seriously... it's things like that which make me most proud of her. Good grades, piano, sports, etc., etc., etc. Those are all fine and good. But being a good person -- that's SO much harder to teach. So very proud of my sweet Amara. The challenge is certainly ahead of us -- how to maintain that amazingly beautiful sweet soul while teaching her to be strong. It's a challenge worth facing, and I pray daily for wisdom as we walk that path.