Sarah the Sweet

I know I've mentioned before Sarah's compassionate and generous spirit and even though I know those are very strong qualities in her I am still amazed how compassionate and generous she is at the age of six.  She loves to draw pictures as well as create three deminsional artwork and the vast majority of the time it is made with someone in mind to give it away to--her siblings, her friends, her teachers, her parents, etc.  She has no problem letting go of her treasures if she knows it will bring someone else joy.

Aidan got a baseball key chain in his party "goody" bag for his birthday in August.  It is a cheap keychain from the Michael's dollar bins.  (BTW Michael's has awesome dollar stuff all year round, but especially at Christmas!)  As soon as Aidan saw it he knew he wanted to hang it on one of the zippers on his backpack.  About three weeks ago he was looking at it on the bus and it broke off.  Sarah was there to witness it and she could see how sad Aidan was.  She would mention it from time to time over the next few weeks, about how she wished she could get him a new one and about how sad he was.  Aidan never mentioned it to me after the day it happened, though he may have been thinking about it.  So one morning last week while Aidan was at school, we were in the van running errands. Out of the blue Sarah says, at Christmas when we draw names for gifts for the cousins I hope I get Aidan.  That way I can buy him a new baseball key chain."  That alone melted my heart, but it gets better.  We happened to be going to Michael's next, though Sarah didn't know that.  When we got there I told her she could look for a new key chain for Aidan.  She was so overjoyed!  As it turns out they were on clearance so it cost me a whopping 54 cents.  Sarah has no clue how much it cost, only that it was special to Aidan.  She was sad that she didn't have her own money to pay for it and I said she could do a couple chores for me instead.  She was completely thrilled with that idea.

When we got home from our errands she set to work making wrapping paper and a tag for the key chain. 

When she was done wrapping it she tucked away in a hiding spot and managed to keep quiet about it on the bus with Aidan and all the way until Jeremy got home.  She gave it to Aidan at supper.  Aidan totally had no clue what it could be and the delight on his face when he opened it was priceless. 

The bond between brother and sister was definitely deepened that day.  Aidan found Sarah later and gave her a hug and told her thank you again with all sincerity.  He even went in to her bed and said I love you and good night to her at bed time--not a typical occurance around here!