Sweet Charlotte...you did it again... "giggles, games, art, life".

I went to visit Rowan's friend Charlotte again today.  I brought an art project for us to do together.  I always bring her art. It's just what we do.

When I arrived, she was excited to see me...and likewise, I hugged her so tight!  (I was an hour late though, and she immediately reminded me of that, and asked if that meant that I would be staying an hour longer than I had planned originally...lol.)

We sat on the couch and chatted for a few minutes and I showed her the art project that I brought.  I just assumed that we would jump right in and do it together, but she hesitated when I asked if she wanted to do it with me.  Then she giggled, and smiled her beautiful smile, and told me, "No, let's play a game first."  I of course said yes, and asked if she knew what she wanted to play.  She ran to the game closet and yelled back to me "LIFE!".  I was taken aback for just a moment.  She and Rowan played Life together the first day they ever met in the hospital play room.  I'm not sure if she even remembers that, but I know her Dad and I do.  I have not played another game of Life since that day.  But by golly, if Charlotte wants to play Life, then Life we shall play.  I helped her find it in the bottom of the closet and we went to the front room to play a game of Life...by ourselves this time.  On several occasions, I had to try to hold back tears...but luckily, she is the funniest, silliest, brightest little girl I know, and it was easy to smile through the tears welling up. 

We had a blast! 

She beat me by over a million dollars,

but the laughs we shared during the game were priceless!

After she beat me handily at the game, she said "Ok, now lets do that art!" So off to the kitchen table we went.  The project I brought today was called the "Empower Poster" kit.

First you decoupage the bright strips of colorful tissue paper that you rip up.

Here she said, with a huge grin, "Orange was Rowan's favorite color, so lets use lots of orange, maybe all the orange."

She patiently, and tediously glued down dozens of tissue paper squares, creating this bright beautiful collage as the base for her poster.  She wanted me to help so we got every corner and empty space filled.  Then she glued on the center piece that simply said "I am"...

She liked the poster just like that, but then I reminded her that we had hundreds of words to look through and cut out if she wanted.  All we had to do was choose words that represented her the best.  That part was the most fun.  She really does have such a sense of humor though, so she kept picking crazy words like "vegan" "a son" "geek" etc.  (She finally told me that she was just stalling so I wouldn't leave too soon:) 

Eventually, she and I picked the following words for her... all of which I agree with 100%.

Charlotte truly is a fun, joyful, dramatic, comedian, but she is also fierce, and loved... and I'd like to add "loved fiercely".  Her finished project was gorgeous.  And she really liked it.

She always tells me she will only give me normal smile pictures if I let her do a crazy one too...so here you go...

Then she did the same with our final selfies of the day...

Then, she continued to stall as we cleaned up our mess.  She would pause and say "so, how was your day?", "oh we should wash our hands, here you go first.", "wait did you put the scissors back?", "oh, we should wash the glue brush", "so what's new?", "we cleaned the bathroom for you, do you need to go?" etc.  She's so, so, funny.  She even ran to block the door and said I couldn't go unless I was coming back tomorrow.

But eventually we settled on "SOON", as soon as possible.  And she gave me a giggly hug.

I love you Charlotte!

I had so much fun with you today!

I will be back SOON...with more art projects!

And I know you will be ready with more giggles, crazy faces, silly selfies, and sweet memories.

SOON!

~ I hope some day when you are older, you come to realize how special you are to me Charlotte, how important you have been to my healing process...how much I enjoy spending time with you, and how much you fill my soul with goodness and gladness.  You may be 8 years old.  I may be 45.  But you are one of my best friends sweet girl.~