Mariah

Yesterday the family got together to grill burgers and hot dogs and celebrate Mariah’s graduation from high school. This milestone makes me think about how much I love that girl, how grateful I am for her, and how I pray that she’ll always be happy and safe.

Here are a few of my many favorite things about Mariah:

She gives great hugs!

She loves Winnie-the-Pooh.

She was such a shy little girl, wouldn’t talk to anyone. But her quiet way was sweet, and made me feel like wrapping her up and protecting her.

She used to run everywhere and climb on everything and stopped at every water fountain for a drink. Actually, I think she still does that.

She would ask me the funniest questions, but with complete sincerity. Like one time, I had sore muscles from a workout and said that my bum hurt. She looked at me very seriously and said, “Do you have a rash?” She was a toddler at the time, and in her world a sore bottom meant a rash. It made perfect sense.

She loved to play and play. She still likes to play.

She’s so easy to have around, still kind of quiet, but has a good sense of humor and laughs easily.

And now she’s grown up, and beautiful. Mariah is good, down to her core. She makes the right choices because they’re right, not because her parents said so or because she has to. She has a strong sense of responsibility and wants to do well in school and at church, with everything, and she keeps herself on track. She’s just so good.

One day, years ago, I had Sierra and Mariah in the car. They were little; I think Sierra was four and Mariah two. Sierra, always full of questions, asked me what the word valuable meant. I told her that it can mean that something is very expensive or worth a lot of money, or it can be something that you love and never want to be without. She said, “That means Mariah's valuable!” Yes, it certainly does.