Best Friends

Long story short. I was laying in bed when I opened an email from my 9 year old daughters church leader. It was not good. Basically, my daughter and her friends were not being respectful. I almost started crying. When you get an email like that as a mom, you are irrationally thinking that between the lines, the lady was basically saying..."so, I'm not going to put up with your sub-par parenting anymore." Which was absolutely not the case. But that's how I insecurely felt.
The next day I spent making homemade chocolate chip cookies. When Naomi got home from school, she wrote an apology letter. She was crying. She felt terrible. She knew I wasn't happy. We drove to her teacher's house.  Her teacher was very kind and appreciative. It was over. Apology accepted. Forgiveness granted. She was done.

As we drove home, Naomi was desperately trying not to cry.  I looked over at her. My heart melted with love. She is my best nine year old friend, after all. We have had talks before about how in Heaven, we are going to be more like friends than like mother/daughter. Sometimes we refer to each other as best friends. Cause that's what it will be like in Heaven.
I reached out my hand toward that tender-hearted, precious daughter. She grabbed it and clung to it as if I had just offered her the most amazing olive branch. She held my arm so tight. I started crying. Tears were streaming.
I heard myself say, "Babe...we can still be best friends. But today...I had to be your mom."
She nodded as if she completely understood. We looked at each other. And smiled.
And cried happy tears.