Guest Post

This is the most recent post from Suzanne's blog. I really liked it and so I thought I'd post it here (with her permission, of course.)

"One-Year Anniversary for Maryn...

...of being lice/nit free. You may recall that it was almost exactly a year ago that Maryn came home with the "scratchy's". My theory now is that it came from that stupid Jack Sparrow pirate hat that was popular last year at Halloween. There was a little boy named Max who was Jack in her kindergarten and he, of course, let everyone try on his nappy, dread-locked, lice-infested disaster. It was only a few weeks after that we started getting the notes in the cubbies to wash all of our linens and winter gear. Then we got the emails from the Center director to treat all family members for preventive measures. Then the Dr. started visiting their class and checking the kids, and teaching the teachers how to check the kids, then the parents, and then the dreaded lice came anyway. As you may recall, that was the longest month of my (and Maryn's) life. It sucked in every way possible. It was incredibly disgusting to begin with...imagining tiny bugs crawling through your hair...laying eggs on your folicles, and those eggs hatching and growing into more bugs. Yuck. It was also incredibly time-consuming. The laundry! Oh, the laundry! It never ended. We bagged up lots of stuff and sent it over to Mom&Dad's, where they washed it and then it just stayed there because I didn't want any kinds of fabric in our house until we were all clear. For a month, we had no blankey's or pillows or stuffed animals to snuggle with while watching TV or reading. It was a cold, spare time. We also had to do the initial shampooing and combing...which literally took us into the wee small hours that first night. We had to go to dr's to get notes, and we had to repeat the nit-checking process every night. The scene went like this...imagine our biggest, brightest lamp, and two chairs. I was in back, Maryn was in front of me. I started at the front of her hair and worked back. Lots of clips held the already checked hair in place, while I combed and separated her fine mountain of never-ending hair with a fine-toothed comb and tweezers. Phrases like "nit-picky" and "lousy" had new meaning for me. But this was not all about me. This was about poor little Maryn too. The poor girl was only 5 at the time, and was forced to sit in that chair while I scraped and pulled and actually plucked out her hair for hours at a time. She had to have the stinky shampoo at bathtime and sleep on plastic tablecloths (at her Dad's). She even had to lie to her teachers a few times because I couldn't afford to take off any more work. She was a real trooper and had to grow up a lot during that month. She also had one of the most spiritual experiences of her life to this point.

"We were so exhausted and frustrated with the lice. She used to cry about how much she hated the lice, and why did she have to get it, and she wished she'd never gotten it, and on and on. We started praying more earnestly in our bedtime prayers. Every night. And then every morning. And then at meals. And then before we started the "nit-picking" rituals. Maryn's faith was really tested because after the first time she prayed, the lice didn't go away. I found more the next night. And the night after. They didn't go away as if by a miracle. But they did go away. There were fewer and fewer until they were eventually gone. She learned that Heavenly Father doesn't just take away our trials, and make things miraculously better all at once. But if we are patient and have faith, He hears our prayers, sees our humility, and blesses us. He also gives us trials and experiences to make us stronger and to teach us lessons and to remind us that He is in control.

"This is a long story, but the reason it is fresh in my mind is because we had our Primary Program this past month. The topic was "Faith in Jesus Christ". Maryn's class all came up with their own talks. How has their faith in Jesus grown this year? Maryn's teacher asked her class to think about it and she helped them write down their feelings. Maryn's talk went something like this..."I got sick...with head lice...I prayed and it got better." I got a call from one of the Primary Counselors who told me what Maryn was planning on sharing in the Program. She was pretty tentative about it...maybe we could encourage Maryn to choose another experience to share with the entire congregation, she thougt. I concurred. I encouraged Maryn to come up with something different, which she did. However, the new talk never got written down and the original notecard was included in the master Program script. Maryn got to the podium and waited for her teacher to whisper in her ear. She knew it was the wrong talk, but she said the words anyway. "I got sick...with head lice...I prayed and it got better." Of course, she was a little red in the face and the Ward snickered and shot glances in my direction. I knew she knew that it would get this reaction, but she perservered. She got down and returned to her seat. I tried catching her eye, and when we did I gave her a thumbs up and she returned it with her closed mouth little grin. When she came back to our pew after the program ended, she was a little nervous. I told her she did great and gave her a big hug. I think she knew she had done well, and I think both of us realized that this was the talk and the lesson she needed to share that day...unedited and true to life. Maryn's faith in Jesus Christ did grow and for that I am thankful."

Pretty cool, huh?