Beauty for Ashes (…or a dead frog)

Rayna got to experience a lot of great things during our Spring Break…

She slept with her older cousin every night.
She played hours and hours with Ross.
She went swimming with Ruthie.
And she even got to indulge in, hands-down, the most AMAZING things New Orleans has to offer:  Shrimp Po’Boys and the Muffuletta.

But, if you ask HER, you’d probably be surprised to hear what SHE would say was HER favorite part of Spring Break…

We were all playing outside when I spotted a dead frog laying in my brother-in-law’s driveway.  After Ross was finished poking a stick in his dried-up eye socket, Rayna carefully picked him up with a leaf and came up with a {better} PLAN!

Rayna and I then spent the next hour quietly collecting pretty flowers, rocks, leafs and berries from the woods.  She would strategically place her most colorful resources, then carefully move each rock, flower or leaf around until each color complimented the one on either side of it.  Totally focused on her work, sometimes she’d only use a few words to send me back out into the woods to gather more of a certain color or look for a specific shape she needed.

And the dead frog?  NATURALLY, the ultimate “centerpiece.”
I love everything about my Rayna Claire-Bear.  Everything.

She’s so level-headed, strategic and unaffected by all the factors around her.
Yet, still so natural, creative and responsive to God’s beautiful creation.

Rayna may be the only kid whose favorite Spring Break memory don’t involve an exciting trip, friends, amusement parks or staying up late, but I think it’s a BEAUTIFUL thing that she can find so much JOY and LIFE in a dead frog!