Sophie has always been an intuitive, very sensitive girl.  She is empathetic to the feelings of others, and concerns herself with issues sometimes that a four year old just does not need to deal with yet.

I can't let her watch the news, because she gets upset when she hears of people hurting other people, natural disasters, just the general nastiness that we see every evening at 5.  She does, however, see a lot of commercials.  I wish I had a nickel for every time she explained the benefit of owning some fabulous new product, like the Aqua Globe plant waterer or Blendy Pens.

One day a few months ago, Sophie and I were in the living room and a commercial for St. Judes Children's hosipital came on.  And Sophie asked about the child on screen who did not have hair.  She wanted to know why.  So I told her that sometimes little kids get sick, and they go to St. Judes hospital to get better.  But, the medicine sometimes makes their hair fall out.

Sophie, being Sophie wanted to know if their heads got cold.  And we talked about Locks of Love.  I told her how people get their hair cut, and this place makes wigs for people who don't have their own hair, so their heads won't get cold, and so they will look like everyone else.    My girl asked me if she had a lot of hair. 

I told her yes, she has lots of hair.  And Sophie asked me if she could give some of her hair to a little kid so their head would not get cold.  Yeah, I cried, because I looked at this little person who didn't think twice about doing something selfless for another person, and thought the world would be a better place if grown ups generally did the same.

Today was the day.  We journaled the process from first cut to my attempt at giving her a hairstyle that will look OK until we get to the salon this week.  We are going to have a girls' day this week where Stephanie will go to Grandma's and Sophie will come with me to each get our haircuts after we send her hair in a padded mailer (along with photos) to Locks of Love.  They send a letter back to people who donate, so that will go in her scrapbook.

For all the moments where we butt heads, where this child pushes me to the outer limits of my patience, there are an equal number of moments where I take a breath and thank God for sending me this little girl.  Because she reminds me of what pure goodness, innocence, and love look like every day.  She makes me want to do just a little more, give to others. 

Of course, I had to cut Stephanie's hair the same way as her big sister! :) 

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