We call her all sorts of things. For example, when she was born, she was literally the most beautiful baby you could ever imagine. Nurses and Doctors came from other floors to see her. Well, maybe it was her hair! She had TONS of hair. It lay perfectly about her little face in big gorgeous curls. And so it was, we called her Hairy Mary. Then came a birthday and she loved care bears. And so it was, we called her Hair Bear. Soon after she began to sing, ALL the time so we called her Merle. And not too far behind that she bagen to climb door frames and hollar that she was stuck up there. Then monkey bars, then people! And so it was, we call her Squirrel! And our little squirrel (Mary) is still as beautiful as the day she was born.
Yesterday we went to the Pumpkin Patch with friends to pick out our family pumpkin. I took some snap shots and after looking them over at home I came to this one. It melted my heart. I remembered exactly what was goin on when I snapped this. Mary had her little pumpkin that was all her own. We were all walking towards the line to get back on the hay rides down topay for our pumpkins. She had been attached to me the entire time, even so much so that I had to make her let goof my hand to push the camera button for a few photos. (still melting my heart) And I had asked her to go hold her daddy's hand for one second. She went and I realized he was carrying two pumpkins; ours and a friends; thus he had no extra hand to hold. So Mary laid her sweet little hand upon the pumpkin he was carrying and looking back to see if her momma was coming. I was snapping away and it wasn't until I came home that I saw her expression in this picture. Of course, I had to ask her (even though I knew) what she must have been thinking at that moment. Her reply........ I needed you to be with me. I didn't want to go on the hayride without you with me.
SIGH!!!!!! It made me feel wanted, because we all know that as moms, sometimes we feel unappreciated and less liked if we are the disciplinary. But these moments bring us back to how much we are appreciated and how much we are loved by our little people, our children!
And what a perfect example of what our hearts should look like towards our heavenly Father!! Looking to make sure He's there, because we don't want to go anywhere that He's not with us! Lessons from our little Squirrel. 

You like to think you would know how to handle a certain situation if it ever happened to you but the truth is, YOU DON'T and it's more likely that how you wish you could respond is far from how you would. But some people have an inner strength, a solid foundation and a love FROM the Lord that gives them grace, courage and perseverence. Grace to walk through the situation, Courage to face it daily and perserverence to want to face tomorrow. My friend Brenda is such a woman. And she has no idea how beautiful she is!