My Brave Little Girl

This week we have been fighting illness in our house. Adam started it with pink eye and then on Tuesday, both of the older kids had pink eye as well. Emma was so bummed out that she would have to miss school, but no one wants to be "that mom" who sends their infectious kids to school. Jeremy and I were up on Tuesday evening with her as she had a horrible earache. But she insisted on going to school on Wednesday and seemed fine all day. Today, when I was dropping Luke off to school, I was giving Emma a dose of her pink eye drops and she mentioned that her ear hurt a little. An hour later, she was in tears at the nurse's office with a terrible double ear infection.
What is my point in all of this? Clearly, not the illness update of the Hagans...but what a remarkable little girl we are so very privileged to raise. From the moment I found out I was pregnant with her 7 years ago, she has been such a tough kid. I was never as sick as I was with her, and her mom was not very tough, she couldn't even keep food down until I was 20 weeks along. But she continued to grow, and to be the strong girl that she is today. Then her mom had kidney stones two separate times. This was not good for the baby, her environment was not "ideal" to say the least. When she thought about bailing out (and coming too early), she decided to stick it out with me; because she is brave, because she is tough and because she is Emma, and she does not give up even under the most undesirable circumstances. I am not going to lie or sugar coat this at all, Emma is hard to raise on many days, but I am beginning to understand that it is her toughness that makes her who she is and with the good tough comes the bad tough. I cannot wait to see what she will do in her life. I am so incredibly excited to see what she will do with that toughness.
I emailed her teacher to let her know that Emma would miss tomorrow and she asked me if Emma had a high tolerance for pain? After a bit of email dialogue, I said, yes, she rarely cries over being hurt or in pain. (Don't get me wrong..she cries a lot over stuff). And her teacher informed me that Emma herself did not tell her that she was ill, another student had told her that she was sick. That little girl was going to try and stick it out even though she has a terrible earache! If I were to fast forward 15 years...I would totally hire her!!!!

Dear Lord,
Please place your healing hand on Emma Grace and heal her from this pain she is enduring and thank you for allowing us to be her parents and to experience this incredible person.
Amen