Thankful for Crooked Braids

It never fails. Lauren is up at the crack of dawn every morning except the mornings when we have to go to the hospital to have her blood drawn.

This morning I let her sleep as long as possible before I tiptoed upstairs to wake her up. It takes a long time for her to get dressed with her cast on, and then she couldn't find where our elf on the shelf was hiding. I was feeling pretty rushed as I helped with her shoes and then started to fix her hair. She wanted her hair in two braids down the back, the same way she's wanted it fixed every morning for the past few weeks.

I finished the first braid and started to grumble. It was too straight and needed to be redone. You see, Lauren's braids aren't crooked because I still haven't figured out how to part her hair straight down the back. She has had a rather large bald spot in the back of her head ever since a hospital stay when she was about 14 months old and very critically ill. I intentionally part her hair off to one side in the back so that nobody can see it.

I stopped myself as I grumbled. I remembered how incredibly blessed I am. Blessed to wake up my little girl, even if it does mean going to the hospital for yet another round of routine lab tests. Blessed to help her straighten the shirt that was bunched up on her casted arm. Blessed beyond measure to fix crooked braids early this morning.