The White's Spot: August 2010

When you are around your kids all the time, you sometimes forget that they are growing up. Sure, when you look at old pictures you can get wistful for when they were little and cute, and sometimes you long for the days when they were small enough to carry to bed when they fell asleep on your lap. But mostly, they just grow up and you are unaware of how much until they do something amazing.

I've always known that both Jacob and Jennie were caring souls. Jennie is a friend to all and Jacob is the first one to be there when anyone is sad or in pain. Even with that knowledge, they still surprise and astound me

Jennie has been blessed with beautiful long hair - definitely from her Mom! She has been growing it out since she was about 6 years old, and not a day goes by that someone makes a comment about how lovely and long her hair is. Much of the credit for how it looks goes to Ann, as she is the one who helps Jennie comb it out and style it - sometime in braids, sometime in little pig tails, and sometime just long and straight (my favorite!)

After some convincing on her part, Jennie talked Ann and I into letting her cut her hair. Part of Jennie's reasoning for shorter hair was practical - it does take a lot of time to keep her hair looking nice. Part of it was self empowereing - Jennie wanted to be known as more than just the girl with the long blond hair. But here biggest reason was that she wanted to help others.

Locks of Love is an organization that " provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children in the United States and Canada under age 21 suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis. We meet a unique need for children by using donated hair to create the highest quality hair prosthetics. Most of the children helped by Locks of Love have lost their hair due to a medical condition called alopecia areata, which has no known cause or cure. The prostheses we provide help to restore their self-esteem and their confidence, enabling them to face the world and their peers."

When Jennie found out that she could donate her hair to help kids who had lost their's, she declared that when her hair was long enough, that is what she wanted to do.

Yesterday, her hair was long enough.