For years I have known that God uses our children to teach us very important things, such as patience and unconditional love. However, God is specifically using Nina to speak to my core deficits and demons! To put it simply, my life has been dominated by fear. Through Nina's tenacity, fire and outright courage in the face of turmoil, I am learning to live without being shackled by fear!
Today, Nina woke up and immediately started crying. I asked her what was wrong and she said she wanted to get her ears pierced. For the past several months Nina has wanted to get her ears pierced but was too scared to have it done. In fact, Nina has wanted her ears pierced for years but for totally lame reasons (because I was 11 when I got my ears pierced) I had told her she needed to wait. So many times in my life I have postponed doing things because I thought I had time! How I was wrong!!!
Anyway, I told Nina she didn't need to cry because she didn't need to get her ears pierced. Through a flood of tears and snot, she explained that she wanted to get it over with because she really wanted to get her ears pierced! I said absolutely we could get her ears pierced! She smiled through sobs and proceeded to cry for another 30 minutes :)
During the rest of the day, Nina would periodically burst into tears, "I'm scared!!!" she'd lament. I tried to assuage her fears by saying that it was just like getting a mosquito bite. Nothing helped. When we picked up Teddy from school the first thing she did when he hopped into the car was start to cry and say, "I'm scared to pierce my ears!" Teddy looked totally confused, sweet boy! When I explained what was going on his response was, "Nina you don't have to do it! You're pretty just the way you are!" Goodness...how I love this boy!! Unfortunately, not even Teddy's poetic words were calming!
After Todd got home, Teddy and I went to a basketball game and dinner. During our dinner, I got a message from Todd that Nina had been crying for the past hour, fearing her ears being pierced. I knew we needed to get it done so Teddy and drove home and picked up Todd and Nina. On our way to Paseo Nuevo Mall, Nina cried. Through the parking garage, up the elevator and through the mall, Nina cried. Inside Claire's and while I filled out the paperwork, Nina cried! The sweet woman at Claire's was used to crying girls and was very encouraging toward Nina! Todd placed Nina in my lap and for the next 15 minutes she cried. Eventually, I just told the woman to do it and I held Nina's head tightly!!
Click, click....her ears were pierced with two beautiful amethyst (her birthstone) studs and she STOPPED crying!!! I looked over and saw Teddy hiding in Nina's stroller, canopy drawn and hands covering his ears :)
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| Two seconds after the dreaded piercing! |
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| Beautiful lobes! |
No more crying!!! Nina was elated!!! Everyone could tell she felt beautiful!!! "I'm so happy my ears are pierced!" she repeated over and over again! "Dada, aren't you so happy my ears are pierced?" She was pure sweetness!!! Teddy proceeded to help her choose some earrings. Before I knew it, she had loaded up on about 2 dozen assorted earrings with her brothers assistance!!! She was so happy!!! She beamed!!!
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| Checking herself out in the mirror at home :) "I'm so pretty!" |
Nina had feared getting her ears pierced forever but then she woke up and grabbed her fear by the earlobes and conquered it! I want to be like Nina!!!!
When we got home, Nina raced to the bathroom. She looked at herself in the mirror and said, "I'm so pretty!" I couldn't remember the last time Nina had said such a thing about herself. I kissed her on the check and agreed, "You're beautiful!" She was beautiful....she was and is stunning!!!!!
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