I love my daughter!

I love my daughter!

In case you don't know my daughter is a mermaid. She loves the water. She lives for the water. Going to the pool is her number one priority in life. So, the count down to Memorial Day Weekend and more specifically the opening day at our community pool has been on her mind... a lot!

Thursday morning Elizabeth was almost unable to contain herself as she realized that there was just one more school day until the pool opened. She was happily making plans to spend the whole entire day at the pool on Saturday.

But there was a problem with this. I had signed up to help our friends on Saturday. This would mean several hours of lost pool time. I decided I should broach the subject sooner rather than later... So I asked her if she remember how sick Will was. Yes, she said. She reminded me that she prays for him every night. Then I explained that because they had to take such special care of Will children were not allowed to visit him and that meant that his sister Ella could never go into the room where the doctors and nurses were taking caring of Will.

"Oh, poor Ella." Elizabeth said. "She must miss her brother."

"Yes," I agreed. "Ella and Will must miss each other a lot. But do you know what is even worse?" Elizabeth shook her head no. "Well, Mr. Mike and Miss Stacy can never visit Ella and Will at the same time."

She gasp at the thought. "Oh no!" she said.

"Yes. Isn't that horrible that the whole family can't be together at the same time?" She shook her head. "But Elizabeth, we can do something to help them.... On Saturday we can go to the hospital and play with Ella so Mr. Mike and Miss Stacy can visit Will." I let that sink in. I could already see the wheels turning... she didn't need me to tell her this was going to affect her beloved pool time. After a couple of seconds, I picked up, "You know that means we won't be able to stay at the pool all day. But, we WILL get to go the pool... either before the hospital or after. I'm just not sure when."

Elizabeth processed this a little longer, "OK, so mommy, you want me to a good girl at the hospital? Don't worry. I will be. I won't fuss about going to the pool, because we have to help Will and Ella."

My heart just puffed up so big. It almost exploded in my chest!

As things turned out, we didn't get to go to the hospital on Saturday because I got sick. I got some kind of stomach virus and spent the Friday and Saturday "getting sick." And you know what...

On Saturday Elizabeth came to my bed with glass of ice cold Sprite for me to sip. She patted my hair and said, "Mommy, it's ok if we don't go to the pool at all today. You need to get better."

With an attitude like that, what's a mother to do? Somewhere in the afternoon I found the strength to walk her to the pool for a few minutes so she could splash around. God was looking out for both of us, because one of her classmates was there with her father. He agreed to watch Elizabeth so I could go back to bed. The little mermaid got to stay at the pool until closing after all.