the vanity.

a story.

As a little girl I had a vanity with a bench in my room.  I remember being very young sitting on the bench screaming as my mom combed out my long straight brown hair (much like another little girl I know). I remember looking into the mirror wondering what I would look like when I was grown up. My parents got the vanity when we lived in Nebraska and it went with me through several different moves. As I got older we painted it pink and covered over the strawberry fabric on the seat for a more grown up looking floral. I remember countless hours playing "hairdresser" in my room with my two younger sisters. As the  bossy older sister I was always the hair dresser and they my clients. I combed, curled, braided and primped for hours. As a middle school teenager I can remember sitting on the bench curling my bangs and trying to scrunch and hair spray them into place just so. Exclamation perfume, hairspray and my little jewelry box collection sat on the vanity's top.

Just recently I was reminded of this vanity when a friend of mine posted a picture on instagram of her childhood vanity that she refinished. "I wonder what ever happened to my vanity?" I wondered to myself. I had last seen it when I moved out of the house for college. For some reason it had never made the move with me.

Over Christmas break I got a phone call from my mom. 

"You will never believe this" she said excitedly on the other end. A friend of mom's shares her love for thrift stores and bargains and they have had several yard sales together. Her friend had brought over a small vanity she had recently purchased at Salvation Army to show my mom. My mom stood in amazement as she pulled out of her van... my childhood vanity. 

My parents had gotten rid of it when they moved to the farm 15 years ago. And now here it was. The vanity had been painted over white but at places you can see the old layer of pink showing through. Careful inspection of the bench shows the same strawberry fabric underneath.

My mom was calling to see if I wanted it.

I did.

We rearranged the girls room to make home for the vanity. The girls right away went to work putting it to use doing each others hair. 

It is a small thing but it was one of those little reminders of God's love coming to me in the form of a childhood vanity. He works in crazy ways to show us He cares about little details...memories... things that are important to us. I pray that this vanity would provide fun for the girls and that as they look into the same mirror that I did as a girl, they would know they are beautiful and loved.