Three.
How is she already three? The days, weeks, and months scurry by in a white blur without a proper greeting, and they never stay for tea. Tomorrow is always the most important date. No time to say hello, goodbye. And before I know it, a season's gone.
How is she only three? So much life has been lived. So much new has come into our lives. Surely she is halfway through childhood by now.
But no. She's three--already three, only three.
I tell the kids Micah is the boy I always wanted and Sara is the girl I never knew I needed. But God knew. When I was still a child myself, He whispered her existence into my imagination.
During my homeschool years, I wrote prolifically--for my age, anyway. I followed some kind of curriculum which offered lots of creative writing prompts, and loved every minute. I wrote short stories, sketches, journal entries, plays, and poems. I discovered a few of these assignments when I went through my old keepsake box Dad left for me to go through or toss. Most of the art projects were trashed. I am no artist. But I kept almost everything I wrote. I didn't read it all or even most of it, but one single-paged sketch caught my eye:
It reads:
Sarah, a cute, sweet child of three, loved to help her mother cook. Most of the time she just stirred cake batter and maybe every now and then, her mother would let her crack eggs and drop them in.
Well, one day, when her mother was taking a nap and her father was at work, she decided to make her parents a big [surprise] cake all by herself.
Her mother had always told her to wash her hands before she cooked, so she did. Then, she got out a bowl and the cake mix.
She knew that milk must be put in cake so she dumped 1/4 gallon in the bowl. Then she got out some eggs, cracked them on the side of the bowl, dumped them in, and threw the shells across the room. Last, she put in the chocolate cake batter and then she leaned over and started to stir. Some of her soft, blonde curls got into the chocolate concoction.
She decided the spoon wasn't working [too] well, so she started using her hands and she knocked the bowl over! She put her chocolaty hands to her face and started to cry.
Her mother was awakened, and she got up to see what was wrong. She walked into the kitchen [which] was now covered in chocolate. She looked down at Sarah who was also covered in chocolate. All she could see was Sarah's big brown eyes brimmed with tears.
She knew this time she would not punish Sarah.
There is no date on the paper, but judging by the handwriting and style, I wrote it around 1997. I was probably thirteen.
Fourteen years before she was born, I wrote about my daughter.
Guys, it's her! The name is spelled differently, but it's her! Both Saras like to help their mom in the kitchen. Both girls like chocolate, cake, and chocolate cake. Sara is just independent enough to try something like this, and if I wasn't standing over her every moment, real life Sara's baking style would closely resemble shadow Sarah's.
Big brown eyes. Soft, blond curls. I saw her before she was a thought in my mind. She was God's dream before she was mine.
I'm almost certain the day my immune system shifted was the day I gave birth to her. The labor and delivery was considered to be perfect--no complications--but something went wrong in my body three years ago. I felt it.
(You can probably see it.)
So it was the day the darkness sniffed me out that God wrote Sara into my story with all the light and laughter she would bring.
God knew I needed her. Our family needed her.
So today, we celebrate our little luminary. We thank God for seeing our need, and sending her to us.
We make chocolate cake! Per her request, of course.
And I ponder the last three years. How full and brief they have been with the little girl I unknowingly penned seventeen years ago.
1 comment:
She's lovely and you are blessed to have her... but I know you know that already.
Hope you are doing well.
Blessings.
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