Three Cheers for My Girl

I finally figured it out the other day: Life, parenting the whole shebang.

For years I’ve been frantically trying to get my ducks all in a row, hoping to arrive at the place where I know what I’m doing and everyone/everything is on track.

Duh. It’s taken me this long to realise that will never happen.

This side of heaven, we never “arrive”. There is no plateau where all is right and we can finally relax.

There’s just this neverending journey. A marathon run, where we are always learning and figuring stuff out. There’s always something you’re dealing with so you just have to relax into it, stop fighting it and savour the little moments, the small victories.

Which is a very deep way to say, "Yay, we finally made it to Cheerleading!"

No more broken arms or crutches to stop us, and this girl who has been waiting all term to be unleashed has finally made it to training.

She’s been practising, dreaming and cartwheeling everywhere. She’s been finding other girls who love to whirl and tumble, meeting up at lunchtime, constructing routines.

Which is all very well, but there’s nothing quite like the real thing.

Where you have a Coach, a team and a competition goal.

Miss Fab and her pal Yaz have been let loose in the Galaxy Shooting Stars, so Watch Out World.

Actually it’s not just Cheerleading I wanted to say “Yay Miss Fab” for.

I want this post to be a three cheers for my Girl in lots of ways.

Parenting is hard, but being a kid is hard too.

I have been admiring my girl and the way she perseveres.

She is gritty and gutsy; she has a work ethic that is all her own.

My girl is the middle child and the only daughter; sometimes she really feels it. Many are the times when she wishes she had a sister, as she drips wounded tears over her rough insensitive brothers.

She is quick to compare and keeps a mental tally of time spent (by me) with them vs time spent with her.

She is deeply affectionate, tactile and huggy.

My daughter has boundless energy… until she doesn’t. (She whirls and tumbles through life, collecting casts and crutches, until she collapses in a heap.)

My girl has a huge heart. HUGE.

I’ve never seen the like. Her kindness and fierceness are awe inspiring. Bullies and meanies better watch it around her.

At school she has a flock of little admirers, younger girls who adore her; I've seen them swoop down on her, calling her name and hugging her. (Probably because she is so kind, so loving and so much FUN.)

And that big heart I mentioned? It bleeds for those who are hurting.

So when the lady from World Vision came to school and spoke about the kids in Malawi who are starving, my daughter came home and begged me to sign her up for the 40 Hour Famine next week.

“Mum, I just have to do something to help them,” she said.

So next weekend, my girl will go without food for twenty hours (half the usual 40 since she’s only nine) in an effort to raise money for kids who have nothing.

Will you sponsor her?

It’s all online. You can sponsor her from anywhere in the world, and every little bit helps.

I want to encourage her that her big-heartedness can make a difference – will you help me?

Go here to sponsor her

Go here to sign up and join her in doing the Famine

Thanks my friends!

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