My Oldest Daughter and Me

With the arrival of my fourth child coming tomorrow (Friday), I can’t help but brag a little about my oldest. Last night amid the falling snow I ventured out to shovel the front walk. My daughter, who had been playing in the back yard saw me come out the back door and grab my shovel. She quickly dropped what she was doing, and grabbed her shovel to come help me. On occasions, one or more kids have done this, usually helping for a few minutes before getting distracted or bored and leaving to return to playing. This time was different. After clearing a little path from the side of the house to the front walk. Then I turned to clear the front walk. My dear daughter turned to clear the walk toward our neighbors’ house. We have a good relationship with the neighbors, so I wasn’t shocked. After I cleared our walk and the walk of the other half of our double to save that neighbor some work later, I turned around to find her almost done the entire walk and turning to shovel the path to their front steps. I went over to help, my heart swelling with pride at her diligence. Once that was done, even as I was telling her I was proud of her hard work, she turned and started to clear some spots that the next house had missed. We don’t really know those neighbors, but I was pleased that she wanted to bless them as well.

I figured we were done and started to think about getting inside for supper, but I underestimated her resolve. She asked to cross the alley and keep going! I suggested we stay on our block, but relented about going in. We went past the other half of our double, and cleared the sidewalk and path to the steps for both halves of the next double. Once again, my daughter was having so much fun working for others that she asked to keep going. We decided to check on whether Mommy was ready for us to come in for dinner. She was, so our journey was ended. Before we came in, though, I had Mommy take the picture above of me with my oldest.

There, I think I’ve bragged on her enough. Thanks for reading!