On Amelia's 8th Birthday

On Amelia’s 8th Birthday…2.4.16

Today is my Amelia’s birthday.
She’s 8.
I adore her.

Because of another obligation, I cannot attend Amelia’s family birthday party tomorrow night. Knowing that this would make Amelia sad—she still thinks I’m wonderful and loves spending time with me—I tried to figure out another time to visit with her this week but couldn’t figure out a time to do it.

Then something unexpected happened. My appointment at Massage Envy (I’ve been going in for therapeutic massages for the past couple of months) got bumped back from 8pm to 8:30pm. This extra thirty minutes was going to give me the time I needed to see my Amelia!

Then something else unexpected happened. When I got to Joe-The-Counselor’s office, it was locked. When I called his office, I learned that he was out of the office this week. I had scheduled my appointments so far in advance that I’d scheduled an appointment before he’d blocked off this week and then we forgot to talk about it! So. There I was. Five minutes from Amelia’s house. With an unplanned hour of time. I didn’t think twice. I went to see my little girl.

Shortly after arriving at the house and surprising the whole family, I found myself standing behind Amelia as she sewed a small pillow for Stanley. Amelia got a sewing machine for Christmas. Amelia learned to do her own bobbing and threading over the past couple of weeks. Amelia is quite the 2nd grade seamstress.

“So, Amelia. Is it true that you made everyone who attended your friend-birthday party a blanket and pillow for their dolls?”

“Yep,” she said as she sewed.

“And she helped me sew recorder bags for all of the students in my recorder classroom, too,” my sister chimed in.

“Yep,” Amelia said with a humble smile on her face—as if this was completely normal activity for a now eight-year-old.

Then later, as Amelia and I snuggled on the couch, I asked if she got any special presents for her birthday. She said, “I didn’t get presents for my birthday. I asked everyone to bring something to donate to the local animal shelter.”

“Oh,” I said. “So let me get this straight. For YOUR birthday, YOU made everyone gifts and then asked for donations instead of gifts in return?”

“Yep,” she said with that same humble smile as turned her sweet, freckled face up toward mine.

“Wow!” I responded, my heart about to burst with love and pride. “You really are my favorite girl in the whole wide world.”

Amelia’s life inspires me.
And on Tuesday night,
And every time I see her, really,
Seeing her was therapy enough.