She Is Beautiful No Matter How Long Her Hair Is

Parent Bloggers asked me to brag about my kids. I sort of do that all the time but I figured I wanted to post about this anyway, so I'll go ahead and call it my post for that. On a little side note, are we not supposed to brag about our kids all the time? I mean I don't do it in a "my kids are better than yours" kind of way, but I do happen to think my kids are pretty darn cool, and if I'm not going to brag about them, who is? On to the bragging...

My 10 year old daughter is thoughtful, kind, smart, clever, funny, sweet, and on and on. Everyone knows I had cancer 2 and a half years ago because I seem to go on and on about it like a broken record. What not everyone knows is that not too long after I was diagnosed, both my girls decided to cut their very long hair and donate it to Locks Of Love. They both were happy to have done something, but immediately were on a quest to grow their hair long again. Neither girl liked their short hair even though I thought it was adorable on both of them. I did not think either girl would donate again, but was proud of them for even doing it the one time.

My 10 year old daughter's teacher's mom has cancer. I know I have mentioned before that I feel like her teacher gave her a wonderful gift by sharing that her mom has cancer because she then felt comfortable to talk to her teacher about all the feelings of being the daughter of someone with cancer. My daughter is sort of quiet sometimes about her feelings. I always call her my "man" daughter because she doesn't like to talk about how things make her feel. In fact, when I ask her, she gives me a blank look like my husband would and says "I don't know. I was thinking about riding my bike?" and then looks at me to see if she has passed the what was I thinking test. I never pushed the issue of her talking about it because she seemed to be dealing with it just fine. She does ask questions when she has them, and I think because I answer them honestly she doesn't sit and obsess or worry that I am not telling her the truth.

Still, nothing can compare to talking to someone who is where you have been and can relate to what you are going through. When her teacher told her about her mom's cancer, my daughter opened up and talked about all the feelings I was wondering if she had. They talked at recess, they talked at breaks in class and I feel like they gave each other the best gift ever. Each of them benefited from hearing what being the daughter of a cancer patient is like. Each of them needed to talk to someone who knew what it was like. While I am really sad (and that isn't even a strong enough word) that her teacher's mom has to go through cancer and she has to deal with being the daughter of a cancer patient too, I am so incredibly happy that they had each other to get through it and support each other.

My daughter was talking about it again the other day and asked me what I would think if she cut her hair and donated it again. I asked her if she was sure she wanted to do that. She wasn't sure. She really loved her long hair, knew it would take a really long time to grow it back again and was just not sure about cutting it off. She went back and forth on whether or not she should do this. In the end, she decided that she really wanted to do something in honor of her teacher's mom (someone she has never even met). She didn't do it to brown nose her teacher, as of right now she has actually forbidden me from telling her teacher why she is doing this. My daughter didn't do this to get better grades, she is getting all A's anyway, even in math where she is one grade ahead (ha! That was my little extra brag!) She did it because she is a caring girl who saw something she could do to help someone, and did it. In honor of someone she has never even met.




Before (has a little crimp in it because she had a pony tail in it...also it's not brushed because whoo hoo she was getting it cut and didn't have to suffer through the brushing this last time!)


After




and then my own little brag...I made this! But more importantly, I made that amazing girl who does whatever she can to help other people and is kind, caring and beautiful always.


Strengths come in many different forms. Sometimes it is hard to find what your strength is if it isn't a "traditional" strength. I am dying to read this book. I happen to believe it is pretty important to help everyone find their strengths even when they don't necessarily believe they have them. I will be adding this book to my wish list for my birthday (not until April, but I like to plan ahead).

Happy leap day everyone!