My daughter gave me a button for Mother’s Day.  She made it in school.  It says “You are Special” on the front, and then on the back it says “You are 1 in 200,000.”  Decorated with the obligatory hearts, she had made her point. Even in school, creating this “fun” assignment – she remembers.  I can call it “unique,” “special,” and all sorts of motherly words.  But she knows what it means.  It means different.

She and I may be the same – in many ways, but not her friends.  She can not ask her friends if their breasts hurt as they begin to develop at 8… because in reality she is different in this too.  At 8 and a half she stands just shy of 4 foot 9.  She weighs 73 pounds and wears a woman’s size 5.5 shoe.  All sorts of wild things are happening to her body…