SPF: Hero

Photo by Uzz.

The lovely Kristine at Random and Odd created the Stuff Portrait Friday assignment this week: hero. It was up to us how we wanted to deal with this topic. I picked Little Bit as my hero. And, really, it isn't Little Bit so much as what her name embodies. I knew two incredibly strong women way back when Pickle was a baby. One was the mother of a murdered 10-year-old girl. The other was one of my brother's friends. The friend of my brother was dying with cancer and she was the mother of two children; if I remember right, one was 2 and the other 14 or 15. When I found out that Pickle was diagnosed with CAH, she called to comfort me and ask me what she could do to help. She offered me parenting advice and was there for me to call when I didn't know what to do. The mother of the murder victim is still one of the strongest women I've ever met. I promised her that if I ever had a daughter, she'd be named after the little girl who was killed. That little girl visited me in my dreams for months and it was a scary yet haunting comfort to get to know her, if only in my dreams. Now, I feel like both of her namesakes are there to give her fire and spirit beyond her 5 years of life. Every day, this little gift from God brightens my life. This morning, we walked out to get the mail and I was sighing as little weeds burst forth in the yard producing those nuisance yellow flower weeds. As I looked at the yard in disgust, she looked at with wonder and awe.

"Look Mommy! Isn't it beautiful? The little yellow flowers are everywhere!"

And, you know what? It was pretty incredible when you look at it from her point of view.

Wednesday morning, we were wrapping up her pre-K homework in front of her preschool. She took off her headphones and said "I need to focus on my work." What 5-year-old says that?

And, another good one tonight. Little Bit sparred in karate for the first time. She was the only 5-year-old and had to spar 6- and 7-year-olds. After doing it the first time, she learned that you just had to pop the other kid in the head first to get the point. She proceeded to win each sparring match after the first. It was so bad that as we were leaving, some little boy walked over and said "I'm going to beat you next time!" Yeah, get used to it, kid. Little Bit is a spitfire with a soul that is wise beyond her years.

Yeah, I think she's my hero. She's got the name and spirit of two incredible fighters and they're going to watch over her and help her fight the good fight and pick up where they left off in making this world a better place.

So, did you play?