Who Is It that Appears like the Dawn

These pictures might make me cry when I'm older. After I exchanged VANITY! for frump, the girls took turns wearing my veil around the house. When I stepped into the dining room and saw Millie standing in a square of light, looking down at Smoky's newest batch of kittens in the box at her feet, I froze.



She's eight, for Pete's sake, but it seemed in that moment that years ran through my hands like water, and they left me with a bittersweet ache.



Someday, if the Lord wills, she'll join hands herself and leave this home. I hadn't been hit by that truth so clearly before. All it took was a veil and a patch of golden light.


She looks terrifyingly old here.



Thank the Lord for that gap-toothed grin! My girl is back.