María at Whispering Pines
April 9. 2013

Friday: The E-Mail From BARC
Another good day! Yay! [María] completed ALL assignments. She got 100% on her spelling test and 90% on her math test. This is the first time she’s come home with high scores since the transition to high school. She has a big smile and is proud of herself. I am proud of her as well. She is good to go for whatever you guys have planned.

Sunday: Messing Around
For the first time in longer than I can remember, I rushed out of church to play.  My friend C and I went off to meet our two spouses for what I can only describe as the South Florida suburban version of Babette’s Feast, a Danish brunch at Vienna Cafe out in Davie that was delectable.  I even knocked back a couple of shots of aquavit with the herring and grav lax, something I haven’t done in years!

The rain was coming down, it was grey and nasty outside, and when we got back from such a lovely feast, it was time for our girl to come over.  Her daddy had claimed full control of the TV so María and I crawled up on Sherod’s and my new-old bed to watch an episode of Dr. Who.  This particular one involves reptilian/humanoid creatures that keep sucking humans into the center of the Earth.  We both had fun getting startled and when it was over, I put that ginormous height of our new mattress to good use. I quietly slipped my feet over the side and slowly started to slide down and out of the bed,  yelling for help because the Earth was swallowing me up too.  Maria pulled and hung on and tried for all she was worth to keep me from going under until finally I had slipped all the way down into a heap on the floor, laughing so hard my sides ached and tears ran down my face.

I looked up from the floor, and there was her beautiful face right over mine.  One of the things I fell in love with when I met my daughter was this:  if María is really and truly and thoroughly delighted, she scrunches up her nose in the most delicious way imaginable.  I hadn’t seen that kind of merriment in her face for a long, long time.  Like me, she laughed so hard, she struggled to catch her breath.  And when she could, said, “¡Otra vez, Mami. Otra vez!”–do it again, Mom, do it again.  I would have done it forever.

Tuesday Morning
I had my coffee early this morning, threw on some clothes and headed to BARC in time to pick up María to take her to her school.  She was well groomed, wearing one of the new dresses we got at Tar-get (French pronunciation, please) to wear to her new school.  We sang part of the way and the rest of the way she was a chatterbox, telling me all kinds of stories about her teacher, and how she is going to make AB Honor Roll and I’m going to drive our little church bus full of people over to Whispering Pines for the Honor Roll awards ceremony she’ll get to be in, how she’s learning to play the piano and how her teacher, Mr. Dixon, believes in her.  I believe in her too.  I believe that we do get those second and third and fourth and endless chances and when we can seize them, life is so sweet it makes you scrunch up your nose in delight.