Alopecia Areata: Faith, Hair, and A Girl (#3)

After reading my last blog entry about my daughter and her hair, my mom said she was going to send me her most memorable memory (that's a mouthful) of that particular period in time. I looked and looked to find a picture of the youngest in the exact scarf my mom mentions, but the only one we could find featured not only a clear shot of the scarf, but also a nice, clear shot of blue teeth... thanks to what must have been some kind of blue candy. Being the girl that she is, the daughter said, "Thanks, but no thanks" to sharing it. Like I said back in the beginning of this series, we really don't have a lot of pictures from that time. I honestly thought I had more than I actually do... I guess the camera was the farthest thing from any of our minds back then.

It's funny because as much as I wanted to share this, I am finding I have a hard time not only reading what she and my mom have written, but also trying to put into words my own feelings about the whole ordeal. I was the one who rocked her while she cried and cried and her dad and brothers looked on helpless. I was the one who found her on more than one morning crying angry tears when she would stand before a mirror and no new hair was in sight. I was the one who kept a number of CDs about healing going in her room at all times (at her request) when there were moments I wanted to toss them all out the window.

Yes, indeed. The Lord had a lesson for us all in this.

And for the record, we did thank God everyday that the girl did not have anything terminally wrong with her. She was not sick; she was healthy. The frustration, though, at watching your young daughter go bald for no apparent reason... well, I suppose that's part of my problem in trying to find the right words. She's not the only one out there who has been in this particular fight, that's why we wanted to share it and I'm gonna be honest with you, I think it's always in the back of our minds.

But anyway.
Enough about that.
Moving forward.

Granny's Memory

(my mom and grandmother of the youngest)

I wish I could remember the date, but I don't.  I think that girl spent every Friday night with us for as long as I can remember, then it became Friday and Saturday nights.  The boys would usually join in on the Saturday nights.  They knew Granny would get them McDonalds for supper and Pa would go for chocolate milk and donuts the next morning.  One particular Friday night she was over and it was when she was losing her hair pretty bad, the poor little thing had so many bald spots on her little head.  She always wore a scarf or sometimes a hat, mostly scarves.  I begin to notice she was wearing the same scarf all the time, she never changed it…never took that scarf off, even would sleep in it.  This particular night she had taken a bubble bath. I told her she did not have to wear that scarf around her Pa and I.  I had told her that many times, but this night she sat in the middle of our bed after her bath and said, “Granny, sit down here, I have something to tell you.”  I sat down not having any idea what she wanted to talk about. 

 She said, “Granny you see this scarf, Mrs. R. (her 2nd grade teacher) took this scarf all the way to Oklahoma so they could pray over it. Granny, God reached down from heaven and laid his hand on this very scarf. Isn't that something Granny? God touched my scarf. I knew that God was going to heal me and give my hair back to me.  So you see Granny that is why I leave this scarf on all the time because God touched it and I will be healed.” 

Out of the mouths of babes.

Those are her words not mine. I can still see her sitting in our bed cross legged telling me this.  I remember her being out and the wind blowing her scarf up and exposing her hair and people looking, but they didn't know what was going on, that is just human nature to stare. She had faith and she knew God was going to take care of her.  I think that is when I learned what faith was all about. Your Granny loves you.