A story worth recording

Mostly, I'm blogging this story so that I can remember it. Emma Rose is starting kindergarten in less than two weeks, and I can't believe how quickly the time has passed. I think about what I might not remember from the first five years and how much I might forget of the next many, many years. I love looking at the posts I've written because I have forgotten. When I read what I've written, it brings those memories back.

Emma Rose goes to Waumba Land most every Sunday morning. It's the Sunday school program at our church for children from 6 weeks through 4 years old. She only has a few more Sundays before she graduates to UpStreet, the cool program for kindergarten through 5th grade. She's so growing up! When I picked her up this past Sunday, I talked with her teacher about who she plays with regularly and who she might want to have in her small group with her at UpStreet. The guess I made earlier in the week was correct: two little boys. Caleb is the son of one of the awesome employees at the church, Bryan. Bryan knew Emma Rose from Caleb before John and I even met Bryan. Apparently, Emma Rose is Caleb's special friend on Sunday mornings. He is a sweet little guy! The other child is the son of a man I went to church with as a youth, Andy. Drew is a fun, active little boy, and I remember his father as a sweet, kind man. I hardly know him now, but I do know those character traits are still in him. I felt proud that I was right about her buddies.

Her teacher also shared with me that Emma Rose had been kind to another child that morning. The class was playing a bean bag toss game, and a little boy was "fussy" because it wasn't his turn. Emma Rose gave him her bean bags and gave up her turn. No one, not even the fussy boy, asked her to do it nor would they have. She just decided to be kind. When her teacher told me this (and even now), huge alligator tears started to stream down my cheeks. It makes me so happy to know that she is kind-hearted and thinks of others. She's generous and thoughtful. She empathized with another person enough to want to help him stop hurting. Maybe you think I'm reading a lot into this one small interaction, but I can see these traits in her everyday. She is such a sweet little girl, and I am so proud of her!