My little girl just gave me a great idea for how we can do our little part to honor Jenise. I wanted to share in case any of you are looking for something you can do in honor of this beautiful girl taken too soon.
She saw Jenise's picture on an article I was reading and asked who she was. I told her that she is a little girl who lived in our state, that she died (didn't say how) and that she now lives in heaven. She asked a few more questions about her (age, grade). She commented that she is the same age and grade, and she also has some teeth the tooth fairy is still working on. She said they are "just like twins."
Then she got quiet and said, "She won't get to go pick out new school supplies to get ready for first grade and that is really sad." We bought her school supplies yesterday and she is literally beyond excited about all the stuff she gets to take to school (in Kinder we just sent a check). She loved picking things off the supply list and saw that we bought extra crayons and glue to donate to the class since some families aren't able to send in things to contribute (community use for things like that). Giving to others is a big thing in our house, and is something we are sure to live out every year in various ways, but she loves when she has an opportunity to give to other kids (like the giving tree at her school which allows her to pick a few kids that are her age and buy the gifts they have asked for).
I agreed that it was very sad that Jenise wouldn't be getting ready to go to first grade and that she was probably very excited too. My little girl said maybe we should buy some school supplies for Jenise and give them to another kid who doesn't have any. "She looks like a good friend. Like she would share her water colors, even if someone else makes them messy, so she would probably want us to do this."
So that is what we're going to do today and I'm really excited. We'll go buy a set or two of supplies send them to Jenise's school or give them to the counselor at our school so that they can be given to someone who doesn't have any. I'm leaning towards sending them to her own school. I think Jenise would like that. If Jenise's school has the supply list online I will buy from it and if not I'll just use ours (I assume they are all pretty similar in this grade!). School supplies are really inexpensive right now (like $0.50 for a box of crayons or a bottle of glue), so this is something we can definitely do in honor of Jenise, and love that my little one came up with the idea.
