The Sweetest Thing

There are moments in the lives of my girls that I never want to forget. I wish I could bottle their voices and these moments and hold them with me forever. I had one of those moments today with Ashlyn. Here is the story:

Many of you know that I clip coupons. Every Saturday I get an early edition Sunday paper and clip coupons for grocery shopping on Sunday. There have been several times that Ashlyn wants to help me clip coupons so she gets her scissors and cuts up all of the ads that I am finished with. It is very cute to watch her "help" me. She has asked me before why I clip coupons, to which I answer, "It helps Mommy and Daddy save money on groceries because it makes the groceries cheaper." That is the first part of the story.

Many of you also know that Ashlyn LOVES to dance. The kid dances and sings to everything. She is constantly dressing up and pretending that she is a ballerina and shows everyone how she can dance on her tippy toes just like a real ballerina. That is the second part of the story.

Many of you know that Ken has been looking for a job for several months now. Times have been a little difficult around here lately and we have had to tighten up the budget quite a bit in order to get through this storm of being without income. I had wanted to put Ashlyn in a dance class this year, but because of our situation, we decided that we would wait. So she has held her own "dance class" upstairs almost every single night in her playroom. After her bath, she goes into the playroom and plays the "Music Box Dance" demo on her keyboard and twirls around the room. She regularly insists that she can't go to bed until she has her dance class. It is quite difficult to tell her no. That is the third part of the story.

Here is the last part of the story that melts my heart. Ashlyn came home from school today with her folder in her backpack just like every other day. And just like every other day, I took her folder out to see the things that she made and what she learned about at school. But today I found this tucked in her folder in between her other paperwork.


I asked her what it was and her reply was, "Oh! That is my coupon that I clipped today at school! I brought it home for you so that you could use it and I can take ballet class!" The excitement in her little voice was uncontainable. Apparently, while she was cutting things out of a magazine for another project, she spotted this and saw it as an opportunity to save our family money. She was clearly so proud that she had found and clipped this "coupon" by herself. I just wanted to melt when she told me about it.
Well, Daddy has another first interview with a company tomorrow afternoon. We are praying that God will provide him with something soon and that it will be obvious to us the direction that He wants us to go. So tonight, before Ashlyn's prayers, I told her that as soon as Daddy gets a job, we will sign her up for a ballet class. She showed me again how she can already dance on her tippy toes just like a real ballerina. Her innocence makes me smile. Her joy for life makes me want to be more joyful. Her sweet heart melts mine.