Her arrival time was at 11:30pm. It doesn’t matter the age, color of her skin, her name, or even the fact that she had a gap where front teeth should have been. She might be miss America one day, or she might not. It doesn’t matter to this story if she did not have the finest of clothes like any other princess and her hair was not groomed. She didn’t have a floral fragrance or designer shoes on her feet. None of those things mattered but what does matter is at the moment she walked into the safety that my home walls offered, she matter. She mattered to my family, and my friends, and from then on she mattered to me.
She was a girl taken from her mother due to neglect and abuse. She was a young lady that had an attitude and a toothless smile. She wouldn’t eat her breakfast or the dinner set before her the night before. She wasn’t a healthy eater or mannerly. She was hardened by her happening in situations, but was softened by an act of kindness.
Her hair was braided by my friend and she gazed at herself in the mirror for what seemed like moments that she would try to remember for a life time. After braids adorned her hair, she refused to have them hidden by a hat or a scarf. She colored a picture for the lady that opened up her eyes to her own beauty as a gesture of thanks. When a child her own age handed her a tiara to take home she wore it on her head, and it never parted with her scalp. As her eyes closed shut that night, right above them was a symbol of a princess and a visual sign on the royalty that was before me. She again colored a thank you picture for unlocking a piece of playfulness that was lost. She was a tough girl, but was still an innocent princess inside. She wasn’t perfect and didn’t always act as a princess should, but to a little girl away from the only mother she knew she was doing just fine. Her occasional appearance of a smile said just that.
I often wonder if that if she didn’t have that silver crown given to her, if I would have realized the gift that was given to me. Every women, girl, or lady was once a princess and a part of them will always be. I now know that as I walk past a child in the drug store, or if I glance from my car into the school bus window, or the car next waiting at the light a princess’s heart is inside. It may be hidden, but it is there. I don’t know each child’s story, for every child has their own. Whether these young girls are spoiled or neglected, a healthy eater, or have a hair full of knots they still have a heart of a child. An inner loveliness worth far more then gold. That loveliness just needs to be discovered. This was a challenge but a beauty. This girl left my home and my eyes never set on her face again. I only had her for three days but she made me realize that every girl deserves a tiara, for every girl is a princess.
Elizabeth Norton, is a former party planner by trade now turned birth mom, wife, foster mom and so much more. Hailing from the "true" South Jersey where if you were any more south you would have the wind at your back, the sand beneath your toes, and the most beautiful view of rolling ocean waves you have ever seen. Owner of a birthday party and wedding ideas website she also writes for her own personal journey of returning to health, celebrating the special moments of life, recycling and using the most out of everything and enjoying what she has been given as it is without fear and full of adventure.
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This is an absolutely beautiful story! It brought tears to my eyes. What insight–something we all need to remember! Definitely don't judge a child by his or her "cover." They are princes and princesses in disguise!
I love this!
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