Jili's Hair

I can't believe my daughter decided to cut the side of her wig off two days before her school pictures. Nonetheless, she wore a hat in her school pictures today! Uggh!

Monday, Jili decided her hair was in her face, so while Scott was folding laundry, she decided to cut her wig. She trimmed off the entire side of her wig. Yesterday, she went to school for the first time without her wig. When she took off her hat, her peers saw her for the first time without her hairpiece, and started to ask questions. My mom has been working at the school, so Jili's teacher asked if she would like to come in and do an improptu discussion about Jili's skull deformity and partial baldness. The children handled it very well. They had a lot of curious questions, which were asked sincerely and respectfully. I was planning on coming in to speak with the class myself, after the class got to know Jili, but life sort of happened on its own.

Jili doesn't care. She was so happy to go to school with her hat, instead of a hairpiece. I am still trying to figure out how to sensitively handle her situation on a day-to-day basis. I struggle with hat versus wig; and also feel that she should just be Jili - just the way she is. Yet, there is the other part of me that wants to spare her any hurt, or even future resentment that I did not do everything I could to help her be a regular kid. I wish parenting came with a rule book of Standard Operating Procedures. Until then, I guess will be making mistakes daily, and operating under the trial and error system.

I just pray that as an educator, I can help create awareness of adversity and uniqueness, one class at a time, one child at a time. I also hope that I can be an advocate for other children and families facing adversity. Time will tell how God plans to use me in those matters.

Our China Video ~ Finally!!

I started this video about a week before Jili's Fifth Birthday, and I just finished it tonight. I decided it was time to share our China excursion from 2010. Let me know what you think. Jill :)