Reflecting

I sit today while Brittany has a dentist appointment.  My mind goes back to a day when she was newly 8.  Our school year had just begun, it was warm outside all of our windows were open so it must have been late August or September.  Brittany's chores before school were to feed, water and take the dogs outside every morning.  She did this everyday since kindergarten.   On this particular day she was out with our lab who at the time was young and rambunctious as they can be.  Brittany walked her around on a chain.  In our back yard we have a slope.  While coming down the slope Lacy our Lab pulled hard and by doing this she pulled Brittany's legs right out from under her and she fell hard on her back which is what she thought.  I was in the bathroom all the way upstairs and I heard her call me.  By the time I made it down stairs she had attempted to make her way to me and passed out landing face first with her little head wedged between the bottom step of our porch and the cement below it.  I, of course couldn't believe my eyes.  I made it to the bottom of the steps, turned her over and her left front tooth, broken in half fell out of her little mouth.  She came to and I did what any parent did...I called her dad.  Hours later after and emergency room visit, a closed head injury (she had hit her head and that is why she passed out) and a dentist appointment she was patched up and we were relieved.

We knew from the trauma that tooth suffered that the nerve would probably die and it did several months later.  For 12 years she has had a white filling making up the bulk of her front tooth.  They told us way back when that when she was about 20 and her mouth was done growing and shifting that she could have a permanent crown put on there.  Today was that day.  At least the prep work was done today.  She is now sporting a temporary cap.  She'll get the real thing in December just in time for Christmas.

For Dennis and I it feels good that we are able to give our beautiful girl her smile back.  Yesterday, when we left church, she mentioned that it was kind of sad.  Her dentist told her it was going to be a drastic change for her because she has grown up looking at that filling.  I kinda felt sad too.  But I told her how she rocked that filling.  It saw her through many days, many dance competitions, stage performances.  She never hid her smile.  She did rock it well.  Now, this future tooth will look as close to the one God gave her as possible.  Lord willing it will give her a beautiful smile for of course her daily life but also for wedding pictures, the first smile her baby ever sees.  Lots of beautiful smiles ahead for this youg woman who has the patience of a saint.

I still have her original tooth...my momento.  I think I'll take her out and celebrate with a new tube of lipstick...and I am sure in a few weeks the very first picture.

Thanks for taking this little journey back in time with me today.