My father was a painter, and he painted a lot of houses in a town called Highland Park.  It is for the extremely wealthy and he was so good at his job that is where he got most of his business.  I often rode with my father in the summer and we drove a lot down a street called Mockingbird that ran right in front of the Southern Methodist University campus.  In the early seventies there were not a lot of Mexicans so people assumed daddy was Hispanic.  Being half Choctaw, his skin was a very dark red.  We could not afford a nice car but it was used for work anyway.  Invariably, we would get pulled over.  Was it racial or economic?  I believe it was a bit of both.  My father always complied with the police but as I grew older I started to understand why he was targeted.  He had wanted to go to SMU but he only lacked six hours from having a double masters in history and economics.  SMU became my dream in the fourth grade when I sang in Caruth Auditorium as part of the Dallas Girls’ Chorus.  Despite my grades in high school the guidance counselor never met with me to discuss colleges.  My father encouraged me to start with Richland Community College while I worked.  During my time at Lord & Taylor a woman who came in a lot would often tell me I should apply to SMU on an academic scholarship transfer.  She was a stranger but for some reason she believed in me and would always ask if I was going to do it.  I am proud to say my father lived to see me graduate from SMU.  My Daddy used to say the one thing that can never be taken away is an education.  So I carry that with me and I want my little one to carry it with her as well.  You can see by this photo I’ve tried to indoctrinate her early!  This was her first Homecoming.  The American Evangelist Billy Graham said:

“The greatest legacy one can pass on to one’s children and grandchildren is not money or other material things accumulated in one’s life, but rather a legacy of character and faith.”

Yes I am an alumni and my daughter will be a “legacy” at SMU.  But it is my father who left us the real legacy.

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.

Fast forward five years in the blink of an eye!  It was my little one’s fifth birthday and she wanted to have it at this indoor place where they have bounce houses and slides.  First they put you in a room that sort of resembles American Gladiator for littles.  There are these enormous balls on which kids try to hop all the way across or they fall into a bouncy pit.  It reminded me of watching frogs jump as the more nimble ones aced the course.  Then you can request bubbles to cascade down from the ceiling.  One can simply never be too cool for bubbles!  At a certain point they herd everyone into the next room with more slides and different bounce houses only they turn off the lights.  All these little white socks were running around glowing under the black lights.  They had glow necklaces and bracelets so wary parents could at least have some semblance of where their kiddos were.  There were blurry psychedelic images of little ones gone wild; like some sort of a kiddie rave.  Just before they all dropped I heard requests for “CAKE!”  So shoes were put back on, hand sanitizer was dispensed, and everyone rushed into the party room filled with sea star balloons and oceanic decorations.  Her theme this year was The Little Mermaid.  I do not want her to be spoiled (one reason why I always request the pleasure of her friends’ presence and not their presents.)  But I do want her to feel celebrated, special, loved, and happy, especially on her birthday.  She had been looking forward to having her friends at her party for months (an eternity to a child) and she was so excited.  The American author Bruce Barton said, “If you can give your child only one gift, let it be enthusiasm.”  I want her to have enthusiasm for God, helping others, caring for God’s creatures, protecting the environment, learning, and enthusiasm for life.  So I am really glad she began her next year pumped up.

All while I was growing up my daddy used to tease mama that she couldn’t wait just eleven days so I could be born on his birthday.  So when people found out I was due in October they kept asking if I wanted her on my birthday.  “NO!” I would emphatically declare and I’m sure some people thought I did not want to share my birthday.  I DID want to share a birthday … my late father’s.  I literally could not believe I got pregnant and then I could not believe I was due in October.  That’s why her middle name is Grace, because it is by the grace of God that she is here.  I like something the Spanish actress Penelope Cruz once said:

“All those cliches, those things you hear about having a baby and motherhood – all of them are true.  And all of them are the most beautiful things you will ever experience.”

My beautiful baby carries my late mother’s name and has my late father’s birthday.  And she was mine at last.

It’s funny.  My mother did not want any pictures of her pregnant for some reason and I never realized until it was almost too late I did not really have any of me expecting either.  As a strawberry blondish haired, green eyed child who had a red haired, brown eyed mother and a black haired, blue eyed father kids used to taunt me and say I was adopted.  Really I am a mix between the two.  I wanted to have at least one picture so my daughter could see I carried her and she was all ours.  My whole pregnancy was easy and wonderful without complications and I had just turned 41.  I never even had one day of morning sickness.  Right before we left for the hospital I asked my husband to take this.  From behind people didn’t know I was pregnant but when I turned around I usually got a lot of comments.  We were going to the same hospital where I was born in the same month only many moons ago.  I had no idea what to expect; I just knew my baby was almost in my arms.  The American Pulitzer Prize winning writer Carl Sandburg once said, “A baby is God’s opinion that life should go on.”  And I had been waiting on her my whole life.