I spent a couple of hours at the pediatrician renewing asthma prescriptions for my seven year old. Her asthma is back lately, after a few years reprieve, and it's back in full force.

I sat in the waiting room listening to her wheeze. She was reading a biography on the life of Walt Whitman to me, and reading his poems which were interspersed through the book. She is a fantastic reader. I've not heard her read for so long in the last six months- when we were homeschooling I heard her much more. Her inflection is soothing to listen to, as she reads more like an adult, pausing mostly in the correct places and reading at a speed that is refreshing. She also has the funniest facial expressions, especially the way she screws up her face when puzzled.

She has always been the hardest kid of them all. We crack heads like there's no tomorrow. I pray a lot that I could learn every day ways to be a better mom to her. She's very smart and sometimes that gets her in trouble. She's also had a hard life. She is my step daughter, and her infancy was not pleasant with a mom that left her and then she lived in a tent for quite some time while she fought RSV.

I'm always driven nearly to tears at how God answers our prayers. Sometimes, it's just in being able to hear a child reading Walt Whitman at length in a colorful waiting room that can change your heart and give you that added strength you've been asking for.