Kiss the Pig

Now let me explain the title.

Back when Katrina hit our coast and destroyed so many lives, fundraisers were an every day occurrence. Our school here had one called "Kiss the Pig". Each class was told that whoever brought the most donations in, their teacher would have to kiss a pig in front of the whole school. Talk about motivation. Makenna loves her teacher, but really wanted to see her kiss that pig. She had received her five bucks (finally!) from the Tooth Fairy a couple of weeks before and had it stashed back until she could decide what to do with it. She came to me and said she wanted to donate all five dollars to Kiss the Pig. She would get all giggly and excited at the thought of her teacher kissing that pig. I asked if she was sure that's what she wanted and she was very sure. So, off she went to school with her five dollars to donate.

Her class didn't win.

This morning when I was getting her ready for her last day of school before Christmas break, I fell in love with my child even more. We were chatting while I fixed her hair and she said to me:

"Mama, I want to take my 3 dollars that the Tooth Fairy gave me and buy Christmas presents for Vitt and Sissy." I smiled because I knew she would be hard pressed to find two presents for that price.She then went on to say, "If I had that five dollars from the last time, I'd have eight dollars to buy gifts with, but I gave that money to help those kids who got hit by that hurricane."

What's the big deal with that, you ask? Because it wasn't about that stupid pig. She didn't get upset that her teacher didn't end up kissing it, but knew that it was all going to help others. And she didn't have a problem with it!! That made me so proud of her. Even now, she finally has a few bucks of her own and her thought is to do something for someone else with it....not herself.

Makes me think I might be doing something right.