Our 5-year-old daughter is one-of-a-kind. She’s simultaneously hilarious and frustrating all at once. I could go on and on about how much she reminds me of myself – which adds to the frustration 90% of the time. Over the summer, she and I had a rough time. Being together 24/7 was… interesting. We were both ready for school to start up – for different reasons. Now, a few months in, she is thriving at school and has learned so much and made so many friends. None of this is surprising to me, but it’s refreshing knowing the summer we had. Whether kids know her as her older brother’s younger sister, or their classmate and friend, I always notice when I pick her up from school how many people seem to “know” her.
However, after a few weeks, she began to experience her first ‘bumps in the road’ at school.
Her teacher said that she was having a hard time seeing the board. So off we went to the eye doctor. Sure enough, she needed glasses… badly. It took two weeks for them to come in, which is enough time for excitement to build, but also, some nerves as well. I knew she was a little worried about people asking her about her glasses or looking at her more than she wanted, so I asked friends and family to send us pictures of them in their glasses to show her right before she walked into school for the first time with glasses. Encouraged by the photos, her first day with glasses went off without a hitch.
That night, we had family pictures scheduled. We went to a pretty secluded, wooded area. My kids had the time of their lives exploring. But the next night, my daughter had some red bumps pop up on her chin. The following morning, there were more bumps. By that night, she had them on a large portion of her face. It was poison ivy. We didn’t go to school the next morning. We went to the doctor’s instead for a steroid. Because it was by her eyes, the new still-getting-used-to glasses were not allowed to be worn so they don’t irritate her spots.
This all came to a head when she was named Kindergarten Student of the Month – an honor chosen by her teacher. The ceremony took place in front of the whole school after mass. When her name was called, you could see her smiling face and a poison ivy rash taking up real estate on about half of her face.
I was so proud of my daughter, and seeing that rash, those glasses, and that smile has been a good reminder for me. Our days are filled with the good, the bad, and the ugly. But regardless of it all, God sees us through to who we are and wants to recognize us as His son or daughter (even better than student of the month!) Despite our fears, failures, successes, and triumphs, He takes all of it, and makes us His. He sees us. He knows us from the moment we are born and loves us through every twist and turn. He, too, may get frustrated with us… and love us still. He sees our sparkly pink glasses and poison ivy rash and gives us the strength to keep moving forward.
