Lighting the Night

What a wonderful and beautiful night it was to walk! When Brenna and I arrived, I could hear music playing, I saw "Survivor" t-shirts and "Light the Night" t-shirts participants had already received, the smell of bbq was pretty strong and I thought I remembered one of the sponsers being a local bbq restaurant. And as we crossed a main intersection, I felt Brenna's little hand slip into mine and I became undone. It is really a powerful moment to realize you are a part of something bigger than yourself and that you are trying to make a difference in the world by doing this one thing.

Brenna's heart was torn between two places: this walk and staying at home with Andy's family who was coming over for dinner because Andy's nephew was in from out of town, who I must say is quite fun and Brenna adores him. So, when we walked up to our tent, she was so happy to see her friends. It was so much fun to see so many people from the neighborhood. The foundation did a great job of catering to children on this walk. They had face painting, balloon art, drawing, and other things to entertain them. Brenna decided she wanted to get her face painted, but when she asked, the lady said she couldn't do it as she needed to shop. So, she turned to the balloon sculpture, she was told the same thing. Brenna's look broke my heart. I couldn't help it, I went up to the lady and told her that Brenna had just been told no by the face painter, please could we??? We were just one more. So, she did!! Two more things about this: 1) Thank goodness Brenna wanted a hat and 2) thank goodness the lady said yes.

That hat was one of the main ways I kept track of my daughter during the walk. Being Miss Independent she wanted to walk, well.....not with me by her side. It was pretty easy to loose track with so many people. And the number of times, I saw the hat first and then those pretty dark eyes...well, I was grateful that lady had a heart. So, thank you!!! Brenna stayed by Faith's side for much of the entire walk. They were so cute. And MacKenzie, another friend, joined them. They were so cute. At one point Faith and Brenna's balloons got tangled up and they gave them to me to get them separated!! I was having a hard doing this, walking, keeping track of the girls, and carrying everything else Brenna had cast off that I gave up and told the girls to keep the red ones I had. Faith, wanted her white one, and I finally heard her exclaim, "Mrs. Pagley, I got it, I got them undone!!" She was so happy, what a trooper!!

It was a lot of fun. And next year I will walk again. I tried to get a picture of Faith's mom with all of Faith's friend's but the opportune moment never came. Next year!!