Great Big Heart

My dear sweet Alyssa is now 9 years old and is old enough to participate in activity days in primary.
So a couple of weeks ago the activity day leaders headed out with a group of girls to the local animal shelter to volunteer by feeding the animals and helping out in any way possible. I was SURE that my little Miss Alyssa was going to come home with some kind of animal. She came home and was so excited about a cute cat that she saw there and of course she gave me the speech that I myself gave at that age more than once. It goes something like this.."Mom, So there is this really cute kitten, it is the cutest kitten I have ever,ever,ever seen. Can I please have it? I promise I will feed it and take care of it and you won't have to do anything. PLEEEEAAASSSEE???" So I of course and a big fat sucker and instead of saying no to those beautiful big brown eyes I refer her to her father. Evil I know! I am sure Ron was thinking "Gee Thanks Emily!" I am probably like most mothers the one that always has to play the roll of tough guy and just couldn't break her heart this time. So of course Ron says "I will think about it." Which really means no but he obviously can't break her heart either and finds it easier to
pretend that he is actually going to think about this, um he is so not! Nice try Ron!

So during the last couple of weeks of course I hear about this so called "cutest kitten in the world" and can she please, please, please get it? PLEEAAASSEE. I usually just smile and tell her to ask her dad after all he is thinking about it right?

It has been a couple of days and I haven't heard much about the well being of the animal shelter or the kitten. She was over at a friends house that lives a couple of blocks away and she calls and says that they are going to walk over to our house. So some time goes by and I hear a knock on the door and on the doorstep is Alyssa and her friend Cailyn with a "Please help the animals" poster board. They are so cute! So the 2 of them went to friend and family in our surrounding area and collected donations to take to the animal shelter. A side note to this all is that they went to a friend of our family who used to be our old bishop. He is such a great guy. To show you just how great he is check out the following. On their way to our house they stopped at his house for a donation and he gave them a VERY large jar that he has been tossing his change into since December as his donation. There was $86.00 in this jar! Yes I said Eighty Six DOLLARS! Crazy huh? The girls were supper excited. Anyway all in all they ended up with $122.49 to donate to the shelter. I have an appointment to take them Thursday to drop of their donation.

I just want to say I am so impressed with Alyssa's willingness to do for others and love that she has such a big, kind, tender heart. I couldn't ask for better! We love you lyssie lou!