Mommy Finger, Baby Finger

When I became a mother, I thought it would always be my role to help my daughter navigate through life. But lately, I’ve been thinking a whole lot about how children can come to us with such honesty, sincerity and natural wisdom … and how as adults, we can miss it, because we get so caught up in this idea that children haven’t lived life long enough to see and life the way we do.

And perhaps, that’s exactly why we should listen to them — because their perspective isn’t clouded like ours is.

A week ago, we found a new home that we thought would be so perfect for us. We sent over all of the paperwork, application fees, and I even concluded an email with: “We’re so excited!” Ali couldn’t stop talking about it either with our family. Then, this morning, I got a text from the housing agent that another applicant had been approved. I spent nearly the whole day sulking in sadness and feeling discouraged. I thought, “How am I going to tell Ali?” When Ali got home I very delicately said, “So, the house won’t be ours after all.” She just smiled and said, “Look at the bright side, mom! We still have each other.” Then, she just walked away to watch cartoons on her tablet.

At the beginning of the year, we left our old home in Arizona behind when it went up for sale. This was the home Ali grew up in. The home that once belonged to both of my parents. The home I moved into when I found out I was pregnant. I had never truly “loved” our house, but it was our home for many, many years. So, I was grieving, while scrambling to move out and clean our home by January 1st. I cried my first week away from our home, questioning the future. And, one afternoon as I sat in the local public library tearing up, my daughter walked over to me and placed her hand on my shoulder. She whispered, “There, there. You don’t need to cry. God knew this would be hard. The first step is always the hardest. But you know what? The end is going to be so AMAZING!”

I couldn’t help but smile at the little person telling me that we had come too far to back down now.

The truth is that my daughter, in so many ways, has transformed my heart and has helped me to see life through her eyes, simply by listening to her precious, sweet words of wisdom.