I asked for it

Innocently enough.....

I asked for this book for Christmas.

Thank you, Mom, for getting it for me.

I started right away reading it during Christmas break.  I was so excited at the thought of reading a book with more than twelve pages containing rhyming words about fox and sox.

However,

by the end of the third chapter I had to put the book down. 

I could not keep reading.  Mostly because I couldn't see the pages for the tears, but also because it shook something at my very core.  Even typing this makes me feel a little nauseous.

I don't normally get very upset by things like this, but this book hit a little too close to home.

I will not for a very long time sit in the summer and casually count the dots on a ladybug's wings with my kids. 

 

 Nor will I see the little abandoned house in the middle of our property quite the same way anymore. 

 

 Also I am so glad the little red sundress that Grace wore last summer will no longer fit her this year.

If you've read the book, you know what I'm talking about.

If you haven't read it yet, I have a copy you can borrow. 

I probably won't need it for ten or twenty years.  I figure by then I'll be able to read it with my sanity intact.

Until then, it will sit nicely on the shelf.  Waiting.