Love is an action word.

This week has not been ideal. Putting away Christmas decorations, returning to a routine, saying goodbye to Papaw and Nana Lamkin, and two kids with two colds. SOB, SOB, SOB. Needless to say with 2 sick kids and the mess of other things to hold down at home we did not get out much this week. This morning Makenna came running into my room, after asking to get out of bed first, and said, "Monnie I not sneezing anymore." What she meant was that her nose was not running anymore. Whew one kid on the mend. Hold the phone. Maddax woke up without snot crusted on his nose. Yee-haw. Time to get out of the house. So after Chris got out of court this morning we loaded up the kiddos and headed to Louisville. On the way there Chris mentioned a case he had worked the night before where he met a little girl 3 years old who was wearing a princess crown. He went on further to say she was living with her mom at her grandmothers because her father was killed a year ago while trying to rob a house. The little girl told Chris that she loved princess stuff. Chris told her his little girl did too and just maybe he could find her something with a princess on it at our house. He told the little girl to look for his car soon. Makenna overheard much of the conversation and offered to share some of her dress up dresses to the little girl. I was so proud of her. I wanted to do something special for her for thinking of others.

I am very much a bargain shopper. Chris calls me FRUGAL. I call it WISE. I get it honest from my mother. My mom and I can tear up some Goodwill together. Any way, we were on our way to Louisville to pick up $5.00 diapers at Babies R Us and to hit up the Goodwill because I was looking for a pot to make laundry detergent in . (awesome recipe for homemade laundry detergent that comes out to $0.03 a wash and it works great, but need a old pot to make it) So Chris dropped me off at Goodwill so I could run in a check while he waited with the kids. Sadly there was no pot to be found. However, on the way out I noticed a diamond in the rough. Atop a mound of dirty toys I saw a pink tutu peeking out. Upon further evaluation I learned it was a ballerina doll that had elastic attached to her feet for dancing with your child. It was a whopping $3.05. You must understand that Makenna thinks any ballerina anywhere is her. Every other word out of her mouth at the Nutcracker ballet was, "See that ballerina Monnie? That's me." She spends most of her day in a tutu of some sort that was passed down to her from her cousins. So you see, this was PERFECT!!

I brought it home and washed it on the gentle cycle while Makenna and Maddax took their afternoon nap. Put it on the gentle cycle to dryand 20 minutes later took it out, fixed her hair and then hung her up to finish drying till Makenna woke up. Upon waking she was amazed by her beautiful doll. Talking about speaking a little girls love language. She danced with it, fed it dinner, and watched Dora with it before going to bed with it.

Chris called later to tell us he delivered the dresses and shoes to the little girl. Her mommy said the little girls face lit up as Chris' police car pulled into the drive. I was so proud of two people today. First Makenna for thinking about that little girl and offering up some of her dresses to make that little girls life brighter. Second for my wonderful husband who makes an effort in his job to reach those that others would just overlook. He has such a tender spot for children especially those in rough situations. They say love is an action word. I think there was a lot of love in our home today.

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress..." James 1:26-27