It turns out this mermaid snuggle blanket I got for my little one’s birthday was just the thing.  She’d caught the first “bug” of the school year but at least it was after her party.  She was cold and did not want anything to eat.  I came in and found her like this, thinking to myself she looked so beautiful.  A true mermaid, her reddish curls were fanned out behind her.  Eyes as deep and dark as the ocean peeped back at me fighting back sleep.  “Rest little one” I said as I sat next to her and stroked her forehead which was beginning to show beads of sweat.  I knew a fever was coming.  There is no more helpless feeling in the world than to see your child sick.  I realize parents deal with it every day but it is still gut wrenching.  She didn’t want to color and she didn’t even want her iPad.  I held her hot little hand and we said a prayer that she would get well soon.  The American lecturer Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “The first wealth is health.”  I absolutely believe that to be true.  I am going to be grateful to God for my family’s health as I wait for the strong resurfacing of my little mermaid.