Dear Hotel Water Pressure

PLEASE COME HOME WITH ME! I will give you what ever you ask for, just follow me two hours south west.

We are in Blowing Rock, 5 seconds outside of Boone, enjoying the hard beds of the Holiday Inn Express. We are in a suite. Why are we here? Matts' mom is at a friends wedding and didn't want to come up alone. She went to the wedding, we went to the pool. This is where I met a sweet little Hawaiian girl, living in NC with her grandparents. She turned 5 April 9th, she told me, and just finished preschool. She starts Kindergarten next year and seems excited. She had me watching her swim. She is pretty awesome! I guess spending the first 4 years of your life with your parents in Hawaii will do that for you. She was swimming under water, doing handstands, and back flips. Making sure that was watching each and every one of them. She was glued to my hip.

Her grandparents struck up a conversation with us and this amazing 5yr old won 5 medals today in a gymnastics competition. Her FIRST. 3 Bronze and 2 Silver. You might be wondering why this amazing little girl is with her grandparents and not her mom and dad. She moved to NC to live with her mom parents back in December, when both of her parents received their military orders. So this amazing little girls parents are off fighting for our country, and I am truly thankful for them. I know that they are missing their little girl and am glad that my family was given the chance to get to her know her.

Before we left, her grandmother explained to me that she thinks she was drawn to me, because I look like her mother. This is bittersweet to me. I hope I brought her joy, but I wish it was her mother instead of me with her today.