During the last month of first grade a note came home for parents to sign…before it was handed to me my daughter delivered a very persuasive argument.  The note was to allow our child to put her name in the hat for one of five class hermit crabs that came earlier in the winter.  It was a very big deal when they arrived because the first batch coming from so far away did not make it for more than a day, if I recall correctly.  The second family of hermit crabs came and they survived a long winter in the classroom of 25 kids.

So when the note was being handed to me, without any idea of what it would say…my daughter proposed her theory:  “Mom, you know how you and dad adopted my brother and I….AND how we adopted Lulu and Mia (our dogs)…AND the fish….” Me: Yessss… Audrey: “Well we can adopt a class hermit crab and it would only make sense since we built our family on adoption”.

Boom!!

In one breath, I was so impressed by her craftiness and in the next I knew that her persuasive abilities were all surrounded by the truth…a point of view that we had given her since she was born.  From books like “Born from the Heart, I Wished for You, and Tell Me Again About the Night I was Born.” Adoption is how our family was formed…and with that I recognized that her perspective has been unique and special from the beginning.

Without hesitation, I immediately signed the permission slip and off she went waiting for the lottery.  Several days passed and she came home with great delight and glee bouncing off the bus…”Mommy I got picked!! I get to adopt the hermit crab.”  It was happening.

The next week, we found ourselves purchasing a kit, a terrarium, food and reading all about how to care for your hermit crab.  He came home in a cup in the basket of my bike the week before school was done.  From day one, my two kids squealed in delight watching Hermie the hermit crab crawl around the table, while the two dogs sniffed around wondering who the latest addition was to our zoo.

After several months, some staring contests with the big little crab….and two family vacations, Hermie passed away today.  My daughter’s heart was broken for real, for the first time.  It was hard to hear that cry, she was truly sad.  She sobbed in my arms telling me all of these little moments and that  Hermie was a part of our family.

So today I thought I would write about Hermie’s story…and how he came to be adopted by our family.

Later in the morning, she threw Hermie a party, shared some silly stories and decorated a garden and buried him.  I know…I know…some may think we are totally absurd allowing this to go on, over a hermit crab.

And you know what I say….I say let her feel, let her experience life from her own viewpoint.  Life isn’t all magic and unicorns…it’s about loving and loosing and learning how to see beauty in the rain.   And her little sensitive heart is a lesson to us all to appreciate all that is in our world, and the little moments that are attached to them.

RIP Hermie xoxo