Our Little Overcomer

Eve has done it again. She conquered another fear.... the fear of painted faces. She has been, her whole life, absolutely terrified of anyone with paint on their face. In preschool a couple of weeks ago the kids had their faces painted with whiskers and noses like animals; Eve had a complete meltdown. She hid in one of the tunnels ( they were studying "hibernating" that day) they had built and cried. Thankfully her teacher is incredibly wonderful and sensitive, but it was traumatic.

Yesterday we took the kids to our town's winter carnival where one of the fun activities they had was face painting. Daniel and I talked to Eve about it and decided that she was at the point of needing to face her fear. She was not pleased with this decision, to say the least. Regardless, off we went to the gymnasium to stand in line with our little girl.

"Only a small, little butterfly, right?" she kept asking us.

Twenty-five minutes later Eve was in the chair having her face painted. She was incredibly brave the whole time. When she was all done she hopped out of the chair and looked in the mirror, so proud of herself. She continually talked about her face painting throughout the rest of the time we were at the carnival, simply needing the reassurance that she did a great job. We kept telling her we couldn't be more proud of her.
How I love to see my girl overcome her fears. How I long for her to grow into a strong woman, unafraid and confident. To face the world head-on.

Next up.... the Easter bunny. She's been talking about him for weeks now, knowing we are going to have her say hi to him and shake his hand. Hopefully by the time it happens, she will be ready to conquer fear again.