This is a picture that my girl, Keli, just sent me via her phone.  She is at her Junior “Ring Dance” tonight, a formal dance where the juniors receive their coveted Class Ring.

I can’t even begin to tell you how good it did my heart to receive this picture from her tonight.  First, there aren’t many girls at that dance who are going to take a moment from their friends and their festivities to text a picture to their “uncool” mother who is sitting at home being a slug in her Owl Pajamas.  But my girl did.

And it made my night.

You see, just a few weeks ago my girl was very, very sick with mono and secondary infections.  She still is struggling to get back on her feet, fighting a nasty case of bronchitis now.  But just a couple of weeks ago, she was terribly ill in the hospital.

No mom ever wants to see their child ill.  But most moms are great nurses.  This mom is not.  I am a lousy nurse, a terrible nurse.  Compassion and mercy are low on my list of virtues, spiritual gifts, whatever you want to call them.  I just don’t have them.  And yet there was a transformation in my soul as I watched my girl struggle to breath and dealing with great pain.  I realized in those hard moments, just how much I love my girl and how much of a privilege it was to stay up with her night after night, to nurse her both at home and in the hospital, to administer ice chips and popsicles and eventually solid food.

I am blessed.  I am blessed by all four of my children.  But tonight I am taken with my girl:  She is courageous.  She is strong.  She is determined and focused.  She has an amazing sense of humor.  And she is a survivor.  I am proud.

And I can’t wait for her to get home and to tell me all about the dance and show me her new ring in person.  ((By the way, she won that ring—–one junior each year wins a free class ring and this year she won it—a gift to us from God because purchasing one was not an option this year.  We are grateful))