She Made a Decision.

I wondered if she was really ready. My son, I knew was, my daughter not so much. Then it happened.

Yesterday, we were looking at the Torah schedule and realized that a mistake had been made. The portion that she has been working on for 7 months is only part of what she needs to do. There is an entire chapter in front and a few verses in back. T0 say she is devastated is an understatement. She cried, I cried, her siblings cried. We are all heartbroken for her. She has struggled with her Hebrew and has really had to work hard. It has only been in the last week that she had been able to read her piece without help. She was so happy. And now this.

So I told her not to worry about it and her dad and I would figure something out after he got home that night.

Later in the afternoon, she came and sat down next to me and put her head on my shoulder. She looked up at me with her big brown eyes full of tears and said that she was really disappointed and that even though it would be really hard she was going to do the whole thing. She said that part of growing up was doing the hard things even when they weren't planned for. She said that she was just going to persevere and get it done.

Wow.

She is learning. She is maturing. She is making choices that make me proud. She scares me a little too.

Now don't get me wrong, she still likes playing barbies with her sibs and won't eat eggs or tuna cuz they're gross, but she is figuring things out.

After she said the same thing to my sweetheart at dinner, he told her that he would stand behind her on her decision and we would support her any way we can.

Come January, we will decide what is going to happen. There may be some modifications to the way we did it with my son. Already, I have some ideas that may make this doable. It is tradition that we are working with here, nothing set in stone (^.^). We will make sure that this ceremony honors God and His Torah.

She is ready.

Waiting Rooms

How do they find me? I try so hard to be a nice person, but some people make it so difficult. There I am sitting in a waiting room some place. As we all sit there waiting for the doctor, nurse, dentist, lawyer, whatever, no one is talking. Everyone is sitting there not looking at each other. They are reading five year old magazines or watching CNN post the same story every fifteen minutes as breaking news. So I say something benign, like "how about that weather" and then it comes out. The person just has to tell me all about the details of their back surgery and how awful the food is and how much water they put on and how their neighbor who is a diabetic drinks twelve cokes a day. Or they witness to me about how God talks to them and sits on a throne just like the one in that movie.
All I wanted to do is have a polite little conversation to pass the time and I get the crazy person. How do I do it? Can't someone just be a nice person who has a fairly normal life. "The weather has been great. Have you done anything fun this summer? Did you like your trip to some nice vacation spot? It was perfect? What a blessing to spend time with your family!"
Now isn't that a nice conversation? But alas alack, I end up with the person who is lonely and just needs an ear to hear. So I say my favorite quote from Corrie ten Boom "Lord love them through me cause I can't." Then I smile and nod and oh and awe at the right time. And thank God when one of us gets called in.