Watching Heartbreak

When you watch your child’s heart get broken into a million tiny pieces it makes you wish you could do anything for them to take that pain away.

Maybe middle children just learn to be more empathetic, I’m not sure, but my middle daughter has always loved with all her heart.

I’ve watched her forgive unforgivable unkind acts done to her by the same people she’s forgiven many times. I’ve watched her help her sister through the darkest hours when no one else would. I’ve watched her play her best games and never get one compliment and never say a word. I’ve seen her entire team leave and her stand in one place.
Yes, all the platitudes are possibly true: young love never lasts, it will make her stronger, you will meet someone else in college and so on.
But no one knows her heart like I do, and to see it crushed, crushes me.

How do you teach to love again, when she swears she won’t? How do you teach to trust again? When the person you love, says they love you and the next minute they move on? She asks these questions with her tears, without asking them aloud.

Today is my anniversary, and my hope is that she sees in my relationship what love can be. We’ve battled through every possible trial you can imagine and we love each other more today than the day we were married. I want her to see it as a possibility and believe. I hold her and hope she also sees that unconditional love we have for her. Knowing we would do anything for her and take her heartache as our own if we could. That is love.