Cute kiddies.

Since I am expecting to leave on a mission soon, I figured it would be good to spend some productive time serving and helping out at schools and other service projects. I decided to volunteer at a kindergarten class that my mom’s best friend teaches at. Her class was very small but very personal and easily controlled. We all sang songs together and I got to hear them all read out loud. The kid’s graduation was only a few days away so they all showed me the song they were going to sing for their parents at the end of the year. The song they sang for me “These Two Hands”, was so inspirational. It was all about how they would be able to do so much and grow up working with and using only their two hands and never giving up. These tiny kids were doing these little gestures and hand movements with the song and it was so cute to see them with all this motivation and love and hope. They were all just so ready for the new chapter in their lives where they would attend the “big kid school” next year which was elementary school. There was this only little girl who just had the prettiest little bow in her hair and was so full of life and love and was just so smart. She sat me down and insisted that she had to read to me all 65 pages of a Dr. Seus book and even when the teacher would tell her she didn’t have to read me the whole thing and could stop, she said she wanted to read the whole thing and was not going to give up. I just smiled and laughed when I looked at my moms friend and told her I would let her read me the whole thing, even if it took long and I couldn’t work with other kids. When this little girl would ever mess up on one word, she would not let me help her and would figure it out herself, say it, and then start that whole page over again. Even though I was wanting to play and color with the other kids, I could tell this little girl was so happy to be reading to me and wanted to impress me. I sat through it all and as she got through each last page, she would push back her bangs out of her face, look at me, and smile with wide bright eyes just waiting for my response. When she finally read the 65th page and it was closed shut, she ran up to her teacher and told her what she had done, just beaming and so thrilled. My mom’s friend was so happy that I had done that for this little girl and thanked me the rest of the day. I got to fill out this “great job” card for the girl to write down her accomplishment of the day so she could take it home to her family and show what she had done. I wrote down on the card what a lovely, bright, happy, loving, and smart girl she was and said that her parents were very lucky to have her a part of her life. When the day was over, I got into the car and as we drove off my mom’s friend informed me that this specific girl that read to me did not know how to read when she first came to the class and had come so far since then. She also told me that this girl was very precious to her because she had an alcoholic mother and a hard living situation at home that makes it hard for her to receive much attention and admiration. I just remembered that precious girls big brown eyes and her little cute dress and shoes. I wondered if she ever got to read to her mom and hoped that someday her family would clean up and give her the love she deserves. I prayed intently for this specific girl that night and was grateful I was able to learn from her and take just a little time out of my life to meet her and listen to her read. I am so thankful for these small and simple encounters with people in life that can teach us so much about ourselves and about life. I think it is so important to show all children and kids love and appreciation and help them understand and know in some way that they are forever unconditionally loved by heavenly father and by the people around them.