Double Blessing

A few weeks ago parents were invited to a Publishing Party in one of the third grade class rooms, and I had planned to go. It was a Friday morning, the last day of school before Christmas vacation; a morning fraught with tantrums and tears from both of the girls. Getting to the bus stop required a battle of wills and all the restraint I could muster; with one little lady wailing and crying at the top of her lungs about the unfairness of life, and the other little lady dragging her feet and muttering little girl insults at me under her breath as I pulled her by the coat hood up the driveway (we have very long driveway that seemed to be eternal that day.)

After securing both girls on the bus, I returned to the house and composed an e-mail message to their teachers as a courtesy, warning them of what they might expect to find walking into their classes that morning. I also declined the invitation to the Publishing Party as a concession to my daughter's tantrum and to spare any uncomfortable moments for her classmates should she continue to be angry with me for showing up on HER turf at school.

The teacher replied to my e-mail message later in the day and reported that our daughter had done a wonderful job reading her published piece and was able to have a good day at school. Big sigh of relief...

We moved on to the next day and Christmas vacation, tantrums and tears forgotten.

On Christmas morning Stan and I received the published piece from our girl, which she read to us:

The Perfect Gift
If I could give the perfect gift to anyone, I would give it to an orphan. I would give a family to an orphan because their parents died and they don't have a family now. They would be lonely and wouldn't have that much fun or many toys. If the orphan had a family she would have her own room and a lot of fun playing games like Monopoly. On Christmas Eve they can make a gingerbread house. On Christmas she will open gifts with her family. Maybe she will be surprised because she never got gifts or she never got gifts in a long time.
                  By Sierra Heisey
                  December 2012

Blinking back tears, embarrassed to be so emotional at such a happy, fun time - one of my boys just looked at me sympathetically because he knows I'm a cry-er, I thanked Sierra and carefully tucked the writing into my stack of gifts. Later, when no one else was around, I pulled it out and read it over again for myself.

What a blessing to know that Sierra gets it. She sees what God has called us to, she lives it - most of the time with grace and love, she understands that life is not about us, about her.

The further blessing is that Sierra was that orphan; she was without her parents. How beautiful that she who was an orphan is caring so deeply for other orphans. How amazing that she does not think of that. She is not an orphan; God has given her to us and us to her.