Our Big Canvas

Life is a great big canvas, 

and you should throw all the paint on it you can. 

-Danny Kaye

I live with a sense of gratitude and appreciation for living and for loving.  Every day, I see wonder and amazement through my little girl's eyes, and I think to myself,"What a gift I've been given."

The day Sarah stood tall, wearing her Statue of Liberty hat and raising her torch high, the symbolism was not lost on me.  I researched the poem on the Statue of Liberty:

            "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
               the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
              Send these the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
              I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

 She's one of those and when I share this moment, I choke up.  To know from where she came to where she is now, what an unbelievable, indescribable, spectacular miracle.

We had more painting, more dancing, and our own preschool version of Stomp!

She has thrown herself into every moment with gusto and reckless abandonment, and my friends have embraced her as well.  The other day, I was frustrated with trying to get her to sit during the story around 11:30am.  That afternoon, I realized that I was not using the tools in my toolbox that I've learned as a teacher.  She was done, and needed to move.  So the next day, we went for a "run" down the hallway, she came back, and finished the art project.  It's those moments that I sit back and realize that she knows her limits, and I can help her be successful when I "listen" to her.

Then, it was Family Night, with a carnival atmosphere.  Sidewalk chalk, hula hoops, face-painting, and Bubbles.  She stood in amazement, wondering what she should do.

The bubbles captured her fascination.  She tasted, licked, and drank the water.  Towards the end, it looked like a bathtub, so in she jumped with clothes and all.  And I laughed, my friends laughed, and we all celebrated Sarah.  My friends love my child like their own.  She is loved.
My friend, Imogen, told me while I was gone, Sarah said "Water."  I was in awe.  She's learning every day.  

What a wonderful, wild, fantastic, beautiful week we had.  She's finding her place, her crayon box, and is throwing paint on her life canvas, fabulatizing it with gusto.  My girl.

Tomorrow, we head to my hometown for our annual cookout.  The first time my extended family will meet her.  Where she'll be included in the circle of love.  Her family:)

What a wonderful, wild, precious life I'm living! Painting my canvas with every color of the rainbow.

Embracing my journey of love.