So, my “then” 8-year-old wrote a persuasive essay in school a few months back on how she REALLY wanted a guinea pig. And she gave REALLY great reasons and I believed she would take care of it. But I put my foot down..."NO rodents in my house!!" Besides, we already have an 80 lb yellow Lab who would probably not take so kindly to small animals. My daughter never bugged me about it...she'd mentioned it a time or two. Her birthday was coming up and her friends asked what she wanted. I guess she resigned herself to the fact that she would not be getting a “real“ guinea pig so she asked for a Webkinz guinea pig (that's an expensive stuffed animal for your newbies). A few days before her birthday, my husband found a gift card on my desk that we hadn't used yet. God knows we could have used that on other things right now but he wanted to get her a guinea pig.
On her 9th birthday (yesterday), we surprised my daughter! We blindfolded her and told her we were taking her somewhere special to celebrate her birthday. We took her to the front doors of Petco and took the blindfold off. The look on her face was absolutely priceless and she had big tears in her eyes (which in turn made me tear up!). She couldn't believe it! She got to choose the guinea pig she wanted...and after throwing some names around, she settled on Biscuit.
Of course, she and her sister spent the rest of the day playing with Biscuit. She came downstairs THREE times that afternoon to tell me how HAPPY she was...“Mommy, I am SO happy!” with the biggest grin on her face. And each time, she'd give us a big hug to go with it. It made me happy to see that she got something her heart really desired. And it's just this little ol' rodent...you can see how happy she is by that grin!
She's got that “old soul” in a kid's body. She wrote us a note earlier this year saying she was grateful for food on the table and a roof over our heads. And as challenging as the last year has been, I am grateful for that, too. I think we could all benefit from standing back and thinking about the little things that most people overlook....the stuff that most people take for granted...And realize how lucky and blessed we are for what we have because there's a lot of people who aren't so lucky.
So, my big 9-year-old girl, you are MOST WELCOME for your guinea pig. Thank you for putting it all into perspective...
*Marybeth*
