The only girl: Zoe Claire

I am thankful that I had at least ONE girl! My life would be surrounded by testosterone if not for Zoe. She is a bright light.She is bouncy and bubbly and dancy and still very tough! My husband says she can hold her doll in one hand and slug her brothers with the other! I am thankful for that because she doesn't let anyone walk all over her. Now, she still uses her position and screams like crazy to get attention and often teases because she knows that the brothers are NOT allowed to put their hands on her, but she is testing her boundries and seeing what it's like to be in a male dominated world. I'm glad she's doing it here first and not out in the corporate world where women constantly "down size" themselves with a little tear and "sniff sniff" and a batting of the eyes. Zoe will learn that it takes hard work and not "feminine wiles" to get ahead the right way.
I am thankful she is a motivated student, she loves to read and do homework! She is the one with 5 books in her hand every night wanting to read all of them. She is the one that says, I dont' want any help, I want to do it by myself and learn it! I am thankful that she is good with her little brothers, she is a little mommy and helps them so nicely! I know she will be a great babysitter one day and eventually a mommy although right now she says she doesn't ever want to get married. I don't think that will be an issue later on being surrounded by boys, boys at home, best friend at school is a boy, a boy next door, 4 boys across the street, 5 boys just down the street, a lot of times she is the only girl riding around on her bike outside with all these boys in the neighborhood.
Now, let me say this, I am thankful that she is so "girly". She loves to play mommy as previously mentioned, she loves to play dress up (she can change clothes faster than anyone!),she loves her dolls, she loves make up. I'm so glad she has a nice balance in her life where she is exposed to boys but still loves being a girl. She is also in these wedding shows, she is the flower girl model! She gets to have her hair and make up done like she is in a wedding and then put on fabulous flower girl dresses and then walk the runway. WOW is she good and smiley and beautiful! She is 6 but wears a couple sizes smaller so she can do it all. She loves that time to dress up for real. I am thankful for that because it is FREE for me! And I can take all the pics I want!
I'm so glad I got to name her after my grandmothers. Claire is her middle name because of my Grandma Child, Clara and my Grandma O'Connor, Clarita. They are both with the Lord right now. I was their very first grandchild and I had the most time to spend with them. They were both at my wedding. I treasure the picture I have with them. I enjoyed learning to bake and learning to knit at their side. I was able to give one a couple great grandchildren before she passed on. I was able to spend weeks at ones house. They were fabulous women. I know that their prayers for me still carry on to this day and that one day I will see them both in heaven. I'm so thankful for the opportunity to carry on their names to my daughter. Not only is she Zoe meaning "LIFE" but she is Claire meaning "bright and clear". Now that's what I think is the making for a wonderful legacy to have and to carry on.
I am thankful most of all that Zoe's little life was spared. We decided on the name a few months before she was born and when you say a person's name you are speaking the meaning of that name to them everytime you say it so we called her "life" even months before she was born. Then the day came when she arrived all 7lbs, 4 ozs of her. I labored at home, they didn't want me to come in although I knew I was in labor, when I got there I was 9.5 cent. dilated so she came within a half hour. Full term, beautiful. Everyone around me told me to stay in the hospital another night (the customary 2 day stay) even though I was feeling pretty good. I had 2 boys at home age 4 and 15 months so ok, I'll stay. That night while I was sleeping and Zoe was in the nursery she, for no reason, stopped breathing. The nurse caught it and called the doc in and she did it again and was taken to the NICU. Thus began the most terrifying days of my life. But all the while we were calling her LIFE even before she got here. She was sent home on 2 monitors, for breathing and pulse-ox. The Lord spared her life, healed her and she is a very healthy 6 year old now. I can only thank the Lord every day and thank him for her name which spoke LIFE into her and still speaks life into her every day.