When it all hits home

My youngest is deep in the dance trenches these days. Her team is getting ready for nationals and they're spending hours and hours at the studio rehearsing and perfecting. They're tweaking the choreography and adding in new tricks the girls have learned recently. L, the human rubber band, finally achieved a standing over split, which was added to a routine.

What is a standing over split? Well, everyone knows what a split is. An over split is where you can prop one leg up on a mat (or 3 or 4) and still go all the way down. Sounds painful, but stick with me.

This is my girl doing a standing split.

Now, imagine that top leg extended further over the back and the head arched back to pretty much cross that leg. That is what she showed me today. I didn't know what she was going to do when she ran up and said "I want to show you something!" or I would've gotten a picture of it. Yes, it looked extremely painful and the human body should simply not be able to bend like that. But it is pretty cool that this one can.

After having a friend spend the night and them staying up way too late and getting up way too early, after 3 hours of swimming with friends, after 3 hours of dance rehearsal, and after stuffing herself with more chinese food than she ought to have been able to hold, L was still talking 90 miles a minute on the way home tonight.

"Mom, I know this is going to sound weird, but can I go around the neighborhood and ask for money?"

Why yes, sweetheart, that does sound weird. "What for?" I asked, waiting to hear what her reasoning for *that* request was going to be.

"For Penny Wars! N did it!"

Penny Wars is the latest fund-raising scheme for their dance studio. There are many, many reasons I love L's dance studio and this is actually one of them. You see, they don't raise money for themselves. Everything collected for the Penny Wars goes to support an orphanage in Liberia that the studio donates to all throughout the year. It seems they were talking about it again today and mentioned that the kids in the orphanage only get a handful of rice to eat each day. L relayed this information to me tonight and said that was really sad, that it must be hard to live in an orphanage.

"Well, you know you used to live in an orphanage," I reminded her.

And it got really quiet there in the back seat.

"I did?" L asked in a small, amazed tone. "I forgot. I mean, I don't really think about that time."

Just like that, a fund-raiser for unknown children in a far-away orphanage with only a handful of rice to eat each day became very, very personal.

So L would like to ask for your donations, your loose change, to help take care of children in an orphanage far away that may never be as blessed as she is to find a loving home. If you have anything to send, please do it. If you need the address, email me at valerie@thestranathans.com and I'll get it to you.

Do it so that one former orphan can bless one who still is.