This beautiful young woman is named Maricarmen. She was involved with the Lighthouse back when it was still Central, before I ever even knew a thing about it. When I started going to the Lighthouse as a tutor I was assigned to Maricarmen when she was 11 and I was 18. That first year we read, we did social studies, and we started to bond. This picture is from one of those tutoring days back in 2003 when we were first starting to get to know each other. Over time I became her Big Sister and we spent an extra hour outside of tutoring together each week and I started to get to know her precious family. By the time I started working at Capitol Hill, we were pretty much inseparable. I was able to spend birthdays, Christmases, and other celebrations with her family and she celebrated with my family as well. We had lunch together every Wednesday at Shepherd Mall and I even got to be one of her escorts at her graduation last year. Here a few things that I love most about Carmen:
1. How excited she STILL gets about the Hippopotamus Song at Christmas.
2. How she is not afraid to tell me if I'm being too controlling or stupid (she called me Kate all summer, like on Jon and Kate plus 8 because of my control issues. Just because I want kids to have clean hands and not get lost at the zoo doesn't make me a control freak, does it? OK, I might go a little overboard about the clean hands.)
3. How she's dealing with things in her life.
4. How she loves to embarrass me whenever she gets a chance (she told her teacher I thought he was cute, then made me meet him at her graduation! I felt like an awkward 5th grader with glasses and braces all over again.)
5. Her compassion for others.
This last year was full of ups and downs for both of us and I have to say, I think she was there for me more than I could have ever been for her. When sweet Leighton died last winter, she went with me to the funeral home so that I wouldn't have to go alone. When I had my gallbladder out, she and her mom came and sat in the waiting room with my family until I was out of surgery. When I got overwhelmed with stress at work, she listened to me cry and then suggested a swim party to cool down. She got up at 6 and worked until midnight many nights during the summer helping me get ready for the summer program at C.Hill. She lived with me a couple of months during the summer and it's been a little lonely here without her lately.
Of all of the kids in that tiny, white house 7 years ago, I could have been assigned to any of them, but God knew what He was doing. God paved the way for this relationship to grow and blossom and change both of our lives forever. Now Maricarmen is 18, the same age that I was when I met her! She has become a beautiful young woman and I will forever be grateful for her presence in my life.
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