This little girl...

I often think Grace's name should have been Joy. The word joyous would be a very accurate description of Grace. On Friday she and I were getting ready to leave for Grandma and Grandpa's house for the day. I had taken a shower, gotten dressed and was in the bathroom starting to put on a little bit of makeup. Grace is just fascinated with this whole makeup thing, and was sitting on the side of the bathtub watching me. She said, "Mom, why do you wear makeup?" I told her that I had "some things on my face that I needed to cover up." (Those "things" BTW are the lovely dark circles under my eyes, and I was putting on some concealer.) Grace then said, "Mom, you don't ever need to wear makeup...you are sooo beautiful and you don't need it." She was so genuine the way she said this to me, and the comment even brought tears to my eyes. I sat down on the side of the tub, sat her on my lap and told her thank you and that was such a nice thing to say to Mommy and how much I loved her. I'm not saying that parenting is the easiest job in the world, in fact it's the hardest and most challenging one I've ever had, but it's the most rewarding one and the one I've been called to. The days that I feel down about the wait, I'll remember this bit of joy from Grace. I think I'll write down this sweet little statement Grace said and put it away someday to re-read when I need it. Hmm...like when she's 14 or 15 and not real thrilled with me. I know that someday we'll go through those adolescent struggles, but for now I'm enjoying this joyous little girl. :)