My Amazing Daughter

Sometimes as a parent you feel like you just don't do enough paying attention or REALLY listening. I hear my kids talk to me all the time and I do my best to listen, but a lot of the time I am in the middle of doing something else, i.e. cooking dinner, grocery shopping, etc. and they are talking to me and I answer with "Wow! That's great!" or "mmm Hmmm" or "Sounds good!" without really hearing what they just said to me.  I feel terrible about it.  It's not intentional at all and sometimes kids just talk so much that it is difficult to decipher what is whining vs singing vs fighting vs playing vs actual questions.

Well, today after an appointment, I went home to pack my lunch and head to work. Paul and the kids had already left for the day and as I was packing my lunch, I noticed a stapled note to an index card sitting on the counter.  I briefly recalled Ashley reading this to me yesterday while I was hastily getting dinner on the table since it was getting late and I knew that we had plans to carve a pumpkin. I remember saying something like "Aww, honey, that's so nice" without actually looking at what she showed me.

This is what she made....

Talk about breaking your heart, right??? I cried my eyes out feeling horrible for not giving much thought to this beautiful little gift.  The words are taken from a book that she read, but she switched them to say "My Mommy you'll be" instead of "My Baby you'll be."

She even drew half hearts with the word "love" split in two to show that we share the same heart. My goodness, I am so very blessed. I can't wait to go home today after work and snuggle my sweet little girl.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for making me stop today and appreciate the beautiful little human you created and remember to slow down and really LISTEN to my kids.