I am at a loss for how to begin this post. I am overwhelmingly blessed with 5 sisters, and 4 sisters in law, and I could easily write pages about how beautiful and amazing each one of them is. But today I will just share about one sister and one reason.
Rachel. My one and only big sister. She is 5 years older than me, but since we have both began walking the journey of marriage and motherhood, the age gap has all but disappeared.
About 20 years ago, she did what most mixed and black girls do. She chemically relaxed her hair to make it more manageable and subtle. Years later, when I was about 15 she helped me by doing mine- I would've done anything to be more like her, and my hair was out of control so this seemed like a good place to start. But after a few years I started growing mine out and chopped the relaxed ends off when I was 18. For me, straight hair took away my one feature that let people know I was my dad's little girl. I can't count the number of people that told me I wasn't black. So back to curls- it just made me feel more like myself.
Anyway, Rachel swore she would NEVER grow out her relaxer. And why should she? Her hair was glorious and sleek and beautiful! And it was her.
Fast forward a few years, Rachel is 25, married and something changes. She has a daughter.
Fast forward a few more years. Lael Monet is a spitting image of a little Rachel, with enough personality for 10 three year olds... Beautiful, inquisitive, sensitive and head encased in the most delicious honey colored curls that you will ever see.
Something happens when you become a mother. You become willing to do and give up things you never thought you would. As Rachel recounted conversations she'd had with Lael, and questions L had been asking, I started hearing a change. Where I used to hear, "I could never stop relaxing my hair" I started hearing, "I coulnt stop could I?" And "that would be insane of me right?" And "what if I did?!"
Like any mom she wants the world for her girl. She wants her to know that she is beautiful the way God made her. Could she do that while keeping her own hair straight? I believe she absolutely could!
But she saw the opportunity to walk a journey with her daughter, in the same shoes (or curls). She saw the opportunity and she took it.
I couldn't be more proud of her. I can already see God blessing her for going outside of her comfort zone to love her girl in this special way. It has only been a week and I can't count how many times she has called me just to say, "this is ME! I can't believe it!"
I can believe it! From beautiful to beautiful.
Here are some pictures of "the big chop"! Lael stayed home from school for "curly hair day" and she even got to take the first snips!
I still can't believe she did it!!!! So amazing!!!
ReplyDeleteI love this. Absolutely love this.
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