Seeing joy in a child's eyes

If you have a child, know a child, have ever seen a child, chances are you've seen joy in a child's eyes. Think about birthdays, Christmas, a "just because" surprise, the morning after the Tooth Fairy has come for the very first time.

You never forget that look on their darling little faces & the light in their eyes.

I was able to bring that look to a little girl's face today. A little girl who wasn't mine.

I spent my morning here with several other volunteers. It was slow when we arrived so I started going through the winter coats to make sure the right sizes were in the right sections. I then moved onto dresses when some of the children started coming in. One of them was a little girl I'll call "Sarah" Sarah is a 7 year old 2nd grader with a sweet smile and such a fun little personality. She was "shopping" with her school librarian as well as one of her sisters and one of her brothers. There are 5 children in her family.

We started off with dresses and Sarah's eyes grew big as saucers as we picked out some that would fit her. The suggested list of clothing items is: 5 tops, 1-2 dresses, 3 pairs of jeans/pants, 1 warm coat, 1 light weight, 1 pair of new shoes, 1 pair of used, undies/socks.

I'm admitting to you that I jam packed Sarah's bag with everything and anything that fit her and that brought a smile to her face.

We spent an hour and a half together and honestly, it was so much fun. She has such a kind heart and I found myself wanting to bring her home and spoil her. Like Sunshine, Cinderella is her favorite princess and she loves to read. I imagined them playing Barbies in Sunshine's room, giggling away and playing with Cinderella dolls. When she told me her 16 year old cousin was pregnant with a baby boy, it was everything I could do to keep my mouth shut and tell her that SHE herself needed to finish school, get an education, a job and live part of her life before she even consider bringing another child into the world. But that's not what you do when you're volunteering there.

Sarah gave me the biggest hug when she left to go back to school. I cried when I left. I kept thinking of an incident with Sunshine last week that left me upset with her and the differences between her & Sarah.

Gymboree had a sale on tops and since Sunshine has outgrown most of her spring/summer clothes from last year, she needed more. I spent close to $80 on tops & shorts as well as matching socks and hair accessories. When I picked up Sunshine from school she declared that she didn't like it. Blue is the new pink in our house, but apparently she has enough blue and wanted something else. So, off we went to Gymboree to exchange what I had purchased.

When we got there, she announced she wanted some dresses. No, I'm sorry, we're here for play clothes. But, DRESSES!!! I held my ground and when I realized she wasn't going to work with me, I returned everything and we left the store.

Today, while I was shopping with Sarah, I kept thinking how this darling girl was SO thankful for the things she was getting. There was no complaining. There was no fussing. I know I shouldn't have, but I found myself comparing her to Sunshine and the Gymboree incident.

She asked me if we had any Disney Princess shirts and sadly there weren't any. I keep thinking about whether it would be improper of me to buy one and drop it off anonymously at her school. Because every little girl deserves a Princess shirt. Especially Sarah.

I volunteer a lot with Sunshine's class and with the school. Back when Hunter was deployed, I did a lot of volunteering with our FRG. The last time I cried after a volunteer activity was in Sept. 07 when we brought meals to 2 of Hunter's friends who had been badly injured in an IED attack. Part of it was out of gratitude that it wasn't my husband, but also because these men were truly heroes. Their lives would be changed forever by their injuries. I am still teary about Sarah. She truly touched my heart with her spirit and the joy in her face for such basic items. Items that we take for granted.