Education:

I love that Giuliana is still so young. I love how she comes upstairs at night in one-piece footed pajamas with her hair wet from the bath. I love that she wants to sit in my lap while we watch American Idol, and I love that she wants to eat peanut butter toast with Cracklin' Oat Bran for dinner. I love walking upstairs and seeing her Pillow Pets dressed in aprons and chef hats having a tea party on the kitchen floor.

One day, after getting dressed, she asks me, "Carolyn, do I look sassy?" I ask her, "Giuwels, what do you think sassy means?" "Fabulous!" she responds.

We are driving in the car one afternoon, running errands, and she pipes up from the backseat, "Evan wants to marry me!" "Oh really? Do you want to marry him?" She shakes her head, "No." "Why not?" Her nose wrinkles as she makes a face and says, "You know how boys fart? Well, he farts a lot!" Trying to keep a straight face, I ask her who she does want to marry, and she tells me, "Vinny. Because he's so funny! But don't tell him."

One night, after going to see Bugsy Malone and eating at Rocky Cola Cafe, we're driving home, and Vinny is reading the signs off the stores we pass. "Party supply store...music supply store..." he calls out as we drive past. On the corner is a lingerie shop with lots of lacy undergarments displayed in the front window, and Giuwels cries out, "Boob supply store!!!"

The family went to church for Cheryl's birthday on Sunday, and on Monday at lunch Giuwels reminds me that we need to pray. I ask her if she would like to pray, and to my amazement she says yes! So we bow our heads and her tremulous little voice begins, "Thank you, God, for our wonderful food and for the fun I have at Ella's house, and for giving....uhh, I forgot what I was going to say...That's all...Amen." And I am sitting in my chair trying not to cry because I've never heard her pray before, and because even though she's probably praying for the first time in her young life, she's actually teaching me how to pray.

Giuliana is learning not to say "Oh my God." She tells me that "Oh my God" is a bad word, and I try to explain why: Because God is a person and we want to say his name kindly because we love him, we don't want to say his name rudely, as if we don't care. She asks, "Carolyn, do you like God?" and I say, "Yes, I love him." She grins and says, "I bet God is smiling right now up in the clouds at you and me!"

And I know in my heart that Giuliana is teaching me about God in a way that all my Torrey books and theological treatises never could. She approaches God without all the baggage of fear and guilt that I've accumulated over the years, and through her childlike faith, I experience the certainty of God's warmth and love, and the assurance that God, yes even God, likes us and is smiling right now at you and at me.