Skip to main content

Christmas gift for Barb

By
I didn’t keep a copy of my Christmas gift to Barb but we had a book printed. Here is the rough cut.

What Aspen Knows


Grandma Vance was a busy matriarch of a large family. She was always busy taking care of someone and to each person in her family she played a unique role.

To some she was a confidant. To some she was a companion for sports games. To some she was a shopping partner. To many she was a baker and a maker of the most delicious foods.

Some of her grandchildren saw her as the one person they were most afraid to disappoint. Some saw her as the one who always corrected their grammar. Some saw her as the enforcer of the family’s rules.


But Aspen, the little one, saw her in a completely unique way.


For Aspen, Grandma Vance was magic. 


She was magic because she was stable. 

Aspen knew every day, Monday through Friday, she would get to see Grandma Vance. She knew what Grandma Vance would be eating for breakfast (and that she might even share with her!)

She knew Grandma would have all her favorite snacks and would stock up on her favorite yogurt every time it went on sale.

She knew she would get two snacks and a delicious lunch full of all her favorite things.

She knew she could watch Sesame Street and Pinkalicious at Grandma’s house.


She was magic because she always taught her something new.

She taught her how to recognize the letters of the alphabet.

She taught her all the best songs.

She taught her how to properly pronounce the words that other children struggled with.

She taught her how delicious zucchini bread could be.


She was magic because she let Aspen be curious.

No tool was off limits at Grandma’s house. 

She could scoot around on the cart in the garage.

She could go fishing with the magnets.

She could play in the bathtub, with or without water.

She could carry around pieces of a game all day long.

She could decorate the entire room with all of Grandma’s bracelets. 

Everything was a toy and that was perfectly OK with Grandma.


Grandma was magic because she believed Aspen was magic.

When Aspen spelled a word, Grandma cheered. 

When Aspen rode her bike, Grandma cheered.

When strangers told Aspen how beautiful she was, Grandma was the first to say “I know!” 

When those who know Grandma asked if she ever grew tired of Aspen, Grandma always said “Never!”


Yes, Grandma Vance was a lot of things to a lot of people but to one little girl, for a few precious years, she was everything.
https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1_QIITocOUzfOuHRKM6XNU-dF7pt0Y51jhttps://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1UqeeAlAFdy0VKFE3hqa69C4VHDb3uN7jhttps://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=185Mn9xpVp0ZE1LG-Ww-HhOLGHSDMKL5ehttps://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1rCPxGQZ5QmG1-BJaTArl-c3K7WkKYcpQ

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My biggest challenge

By
I’m a writer by trade. I’ve always wanted to be a writer. I love to put my feelings into words. Yet, in the last month, I’ve been having a very difficult time vocalizing what’s happening in my life. It’s not because it’s been sad or difficult or anything like that. It’s mostly because there is someone new in my life who I care very deeply for who I feel this deep need to protect. I want to protect his identity, his story, his life. I don’t want to overstep any boundaries or crush any trust. I recognize the life he has lived has not been easy and so I tread lightly on this relationship we’ve built. But honestly—it’s a fantastic relationship. He’s an amazing kid. I’ve been asked to write a blog post for an organization that helps recruit foster parents about the first few weeks of being a foster parent. I’m having difficulty deciding what to write. I feel like anything I write about my case probably won’t apply to their case so it’s not very helpful. I keep writing drafts and then...
Post a Comment
Read more

Summer time

By
This summer is flying by! I've been taking Kaybree to the same sitter every day since 10 weeks old when I went back to work, Shaunelle Eyestone. You are their 5th kid. But with four kids of her own home all summer and a new baby coming along Shaunelle asked to go to part time this summer. Luckily we have awesome family near by willing to help me out and watch you girls! Grandma Bonnie has been taking you two days a week and says it's the best part of her week. She loves it! She's a substitute teacher during the school year so she has the summer off. She's so sweet to watch you both for free. It's also giving you a chance to get to know John better as Bonnie asks him to help out each day. He's learning more about babies and you're opening up to him more. It's sweet to see. Fridays Aunt Brittany takes the two of you for free. Her kids basically just spoil you both all day. They argue over whose turn it is to hold Eisley and Kaybree basically becomes th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Jumping to conclusions

By
I think we, as a society, are always prepared to jump to the worst conclusions about kids like J. That includes me.  We recently found out he accepted cigarettes from a friend. Knowing just that, we assumed he smoked them. He swears he didn't smoke them but asked for them so he could give them to another friend--to get him to stop smoking weed. As dumb as that sounds, I believe him. Now. But at first, and I think reasonably so, I didn't. We jumped to the conclusion that he was smoking. We got upset that it felt like he was hiding it from us. He has no idea why we would jump to that conclusion. He doesn't understand that he put himself in that situation. He doesn't understand why we would think he is smoking. He got mad at us for assuming the worst. We did the same thing several days earlier when it was getting late and he wasn't home and also wasn't answering his phone. I thought back to everything we had disagreed about. I feared he had run away. I feared h...
Post a Comment
Read more