Lydia the Tenderhearted

Lydia is perhaps the most passionate of our children (which is saying a lot--all of them seem to have pretty strong emotions!). She has a tender place in her heart for most of God's creatures and dearly loves to make friends of animals large and small.

One day last summer she came in from playing outside with a dead roly-poly in her hand and a saga of woe. She told me, "I thought he was a bad roly-poly, so I killed him. So he was dead. But he wasn't a bad roly-poly. I thought he was, but he wasn't. He was my friend. I killed my friend. Now I will never see him again . . ." And she burst into tears.

Just the other day she was on a story-telling kick. I managed to get one on video:

(Oh, and she recently had an episode with pinworms that involved several nights of torment and weeping--thus the distinction between "good" and "bad" worms.)