To My Sunshine

My dear Grace,

Raising you has been one of the greatest privileges of my life.

From the first day I laid eyes on you and you gave me your radiant smile, you have been sunshine in my life. Happy and fearless—that’s the way I would describe you from the time you were a baby. You sang “Amazing Grace” to an entire school full of kids when you were just two years old. Dad taught you to do backflips into the pool when you were three. You are always ready to jump into the next adventure with both feet.

But one of the most special things about you is your love for people. I don’t think I’ve ever met someone more people-oriented than you. When you were a toddler, I remember showing you the HOPAC school yearbook and being flabbergasted by how many names you knew of students and staff. As you grew up, whenever you met a new friend, you would always run into the kitchen and grandly announce, “I love [this person!] and I love her mom too!” I don’t know if you’ve ever met a person you didn’t like. God gave you the gift of loving others enthusiastically. 😊

More importantly, you are an includer and a peacemaker. You always have an eye out for the person on the outside, the one that nobody notices. At your third-grade birthday party, when everyone was dancing, you saw the shy girl in the corner and made a point to pull her into the group. Many years later, that same girl wrote you a note that you had a tremendous impact on her life. And when friends are upset with each other, you’re the one to step in and help them reconcile. When you were growing up, I think you had more patience with your siblings than I did!

Now you’ve decided that you want to become a teacher, which doesn’t surprise me. When you were in kindergarten, your teacher told us that you were the one who always volunteered to help out the little boy who was struggling. You created “summer school” for your siblings, complete with a written schedule and lesson plans. And of course, there’s all those times you baked cookies in the kitchen, dramatically narrating your every move to your invisible audience.

Gracie, you have carefully and thoughtfully pursued God. You didn’t make quick promises to Him or pretend to be a Christian just to please others. You deliberately thought long and hard about who you wanted to be and what you stood for and concluded last year that you were ready to turn your life over to Christ. I’m so proud of you for thinking for yourself about what you believe.

Of course, there have been many times in your life that have brought clouds in front of your sunshine. In your short life, you have dealt with more loss than most people will experience in a lifetime. You have grieved hard but have continually chosen joy. Earlier this school year, you experienced something really hard. With eyes still red from crying, you said to me, “I’m glad it happened to me, Mom, and not one of my friends. I would rather it be me than them.”

You have taught me important things your whole life.

You are a talented girl, Grace. You are an incredible artist, a hilarious actress, a dedicated basketball player, and an excellent student. But what makes us the most proud is the person you are. You have allowed God to take all the threads of your life—the beautiful and the ugly parts, the good memories and the hard ones—to make something glorious. God is going to continue to weave all these things together for His good purposes. Trust Him in that process. Allow Him to deepen your knowledge of who He is and your identification with His suffering. Continue to look to Him for your joy. We can’t wait to see how He’s going to spread your sunshine to the rest of the world.

Love,

Mom