My Little Chicken

Chicken Nugget, BW, and I started singing a very silly song just after BW and I got married. It goes something like this:
"Mamma (or Chicken Nugget or BW) is a silly chicken! She's the silliest chicken I know! Whenever I see her, she's a silly chicken! And I know she's a siiiiiii-ly chicken!"
I wish you could hear it being sung, but you'll just have to imagine a very silly tune that goes along with us all singing about us being silly chickens. Now we can sing about Noodle and Banana being silly chickens, too.

I don't know why I started calling CN "My Little Chicken," or when, but it's funny. We also call many other things "chickens." You can use the word "chicken in place of lots of things, and it's really funny. Like, if you want pizza, you can go to Chicken Hut. Or if you need a hug, you can ask very politely for a chicken as you hold out your arms. It probably doesn't have the same impact in explanation, but if you were around us and observing it all in context, it would make perfect sense. And you'd laugh, because it's really funny.



Right now, I'm missing my Little Chicken. She's been in AR for two weeks, and I'm lonely without her. She really is one of my very best friends. I tell her often how glad I am that God gave her to me. She really has been a great gift to me over these past seven years of her life. She's touched so many people, loved them, been loved by them, and made them happy. Not least of all, me! She's so willing to love and forgive and be gracious. Don't get me wrong! She tried me a lot when she hit, not the terrible two's, but the terrible three's! I didn't know if I would survive. But she has grown out of it and the more I look back, the more I understand how so much of what I considered to be trials were simply developmental normalcy! And through it all, she was still my gift, and we'd cuddle and giggle and make it through the day. And we still do.

Last year, when she stayed with our dear friends who pastor a wonderful church a little north of us, she asked Jesus into her heart to be her savior. I had been telling her the story of Jesus for the year preceeding and just let things soak into that little mind and heart of hers. So, at our friends' Vacation Bible School last year, she walked up to the front and told her friend that she wanted to ask Jesus to forgive her sins and to be the boss of her life. She is a little girl who loves the Lord already and asks me often to pray with her or to pray for friends of hers. Or she'll tell me of kindness she's shown to a classmate, maybe one who no one else will play with. I just thank the Lord when she tells me stories like this. I thank Him and praise Him that despite me, she is becoming something wonderful for God. (She has not gotten baptized yet, though, because she says that 1) she's afraid of the water and 2) she's afraid of all the people watching. But we'll get there!)

I make so many mistakes. I've messed up so often when it comes to My Little Chicken. But God's grace shines through everywhere.

That Little Chicken and I like to take Sunday naps together. She'll say, "Mamma, can we talk for a little while before we go to sleep?" And of course, there is always time for that.

I have loved watching her as she's started school and choir at church and as she has started ballet and tap this year. It's fun to watch her enjoy life and to succeed.

And Chicken is a prayer warrior! Before I got married, she prayed for a dad. After I got married, she prayed (nightly) for a baby, when a baby was not in the plans at that time! We were so shocked to find out I was pregnant, but not Chicken Nugget. She just assumed her prayers would be answered. And then she prayed that the baby would be a girl and there just wasn't any compromise. I've had many, many people ask to be put on Eliza's prayer list!

Her most recent prayer concern was about all the flooding near our home a couple of weeks ago. She came to me and asked if we could pray that we'd be safe, so we did. The next day on TV as there were reports of more floods, Chicken said in a confident voice, "Don't worry, Mom, we'll be safe because we prayed about it."

That Little Chicken has just always rolled with the punches. She's never faltered and always loved. No matter who she's been with, she's just loved and loved and loved. And she's been loved and is loved. I miss my little Chicken and can't wait for her to come home.

Oh, and just so you know, for Mother's Day I got a plate that she had made at school. It didn't say "Happy Mother's Day." No, it said "Happy Chicken Day!"