………for the girls

Once upon a time there was a little girl, her name was Sydney Claire. She had hair the color of corn silk and eyes the color of a chocolate bar. Her smile was quick and bright and everyone was drawn to her. She loved her family, she loved playing on her farm, she loved big dogs…….and she loved shoes. Especially pink ones.

Every time Sydney went to the store with her Momma, if she was really good, she would get a surprise. She always chose shoes. Her Momma would say, “Sydney Claire! You can have anything in this store you want! Why do you want another pair of shoes?!” Sydney would pout, the only time she ever pouted, until Momma would say okay, and they would go to the isle in the store where they kept her favorite thing.

Sydney loved shoes with little heels the best. She loved the sound they made. She would run through the house and they would make a clamor that drove her two big brothers crazy! She called them her ‘clackin’ shoes because that’s what they said when she walked around!

“Clack! Clack! Clack!” and she would giggle

“Momma! When I grow up, I’m gonna have a hundred, million shoes”

Her Daddy laughed, “Sydney Clair, you have a hundred million shoes right now!”

Sydney loved going to school. She loved her teachers and her classroom and her friends. She loved doing her schoolwork, it made her feel like such a big girl to get all of her answers right. If she got all of her answers right, she got a surprise! Do you know what that surprise usually was?! Shoes! Today was Friday! Friday is the day she got her paper from her teacher telling her scores for the week. Sydney happened to know she had all A’s this week. A trip to the store and a new pair of shoes would definitely be happening today!

Momma picked her up and Sydney pulled her special paper out of her pink backpack and handed it to Momma.

“I got all A’s! Can we go to the shoe store?!”

Momma smiled extra big and said, “If you are sure it’s shoes you want.” Sydney grinned back and held her hand up high. Momma high-fived her and off they went.

They went to every shoe store in the mall. They went to every shoe store in town, They went to every shoe store in the next town. Sydney Clair couldn’t find ONE PAIR of shoes she didn’t already have. They looked for a size bigger, even a size smaller. NO SHOES!

Sydney Clair was the saddest she had ever been.

Momma told her she would get her anything else in the whole store she wanted. She showed her dolls and blocks and books. Sydney just shook her head and the left the store, her little corn silk ponytail waving goodbye as they walked to the car.

As she was buckling up her seat belt, something caught Sydney Claire’s attention! It was a new store!! Right there in front of them! And it had SHOES in the window!

“Oh please Momma! They will have a pair of shoes I don’t have, I just know it!” Sighing, Momma unbuckled her seat belt, picked up her purse “Come on and let’s have a see.” and they got back out of the car.

With a sunny smile on her face, Sydney grabbed hold of Momma’s hand and pulled her into the new store. Sydney couldn’t believe it! There were so many SHOES. This was a new store full of just shoes!! Sydney giggled and squealed and told Momma to “Hurry UP!!”

Up and down the isles they went, Sydney picking shoes up and putting them back down. She just couldn’t decide. There were so many!

And then….

Sydney Claire turned the corner onto the next isle and stopped really quickly. Her eyes got really big and her grin got really bigger!

She pointed her finger and looked up at Momma and said, “Can I please have these shoes Momma?”

Momma looked up and saw what Sydney was pointing at.

On a little glittery display stand, sat a pair of pink shoes. Pink running shoes. They had pink sparkles on the soles and butterflies on the sides and pink shoelaces with white polka dots. But that’s not all they had. They had a tiny, shiny, pair of wings on the back.

Sydney stood still and quiet, waiting on Momma to find her size. She held her breath until Momma plucked the box, with her size inside, off the shelf and handed it to Sydney. She sat down on the little bench, with a lavender cushion, made for trying on special shoes and slipped the running shoes onto her sweet toes. They were perfect. They were different. And Sydney knew they were the most special shoes she had ever seen.

“Sydney, are you sure you want THESE shoes? They aren’t like any shoes you have. They don’t show your pretty pink toe polish and they won’t clack when you walk down the hall. They don’t have a little heel to make you a little taller and you have to tie these shoes, and you don’t know how to do that yet.”

Sydney Claire looked up at her Momma with her big chocolate brown eyes and said,

“But Momma, they have wings.”

So from then on, instead of clacking everywhere , Sydney began to run everywhere. She ran up and down the hall and instead of her two brothers fussing about the noise her clacking shoes made, they fussed about her going so fast that it blew their homework papers off the desks in their rooms.

When Sydney got a little bigger, she started running outside in the yard, she would run with her dogs and the cows and the chickens. Then she started running with the horses, and she BEAT them!!

The funny thing was, the shoes never got too small. They grew right with Sydney’s pretty little feet. And as she grew and the pink shoes grew….

so did the wings.

Sydney wore those shoes everywhere she went. Momma would ask her all the time if she wanted new shoes! Sydney would shake her head and say, “No Momma, these shoes are special, God told me they were.” and off she would go running again, grinning and smiling and waiting. She didn’t know on what exactly, but Sydney knew that one day something amazing was going to happen to her and her pink shoes with wings.

One summer day, when school was done for the year, Sydney was outside running with her dogs and horses and cows and chickens. Suddenly she could hear her Momma calling, “Here kitty kitty kitty! Oh please come down, you’re much too high!”

Sydney ran over to where Momma was standing under their mimosa tree. She was talking to a little red kitten. She had an open can of tuna, holding it up into the air, hoping the kitten would come down when it smelled the stinky fish!

“Oh Sydney Claire! This poor kitty is up in the tree and can’t get down! She will fall and hurt herself and I am so afraid!”

As Sydney stood there next to her Momma, looking up at that poor little kitten…

wondering….

pondering….

suddenly…….

Sydney’s feet tingled.

She wiggled her toes and her feet tingled again.

Startled, she looked down at her pretty pink shoes and her wings were FLUTTERING!! Sydney could feel the hum of the little wings in her pretty pink toes and she knew right then that she was going to get that kitty and how she was going to do it!

She scooted over under the tree, right under the little red kitty who was looking down at her and just crying “Meow, meow, meow”. Sydney patted Momma on the arm and said, “I’ll get her Momma!” and just like that up Sydney Claire went!

Momma dropped the can of tuna and opened her mouth to say something but she didn’t know what to say! She couldn’t believe it! Sydney was FLYING! Momma could see the little wings on Sydney’s shoes fluttering so fast! She could hardly keep from shouting! Instead, she sat down hard on her bottom and shut her mouth with a clap.

Sydney and her winged shoes floated straight up into the tree and Sydney reached out and pulled the tiny red kitty out of the branch of the mimosa tree and down they went.

Smiling, she handed the kitty to her Momma and laughed, “There!! All safe! I’ll bet she wanted to smell the pink mimosa flowers and got stuck”

Momma just sat there staring at Sydney, she didn’t even know what to say! Suddenly her two brothers came running out of the house! They had seen Sydney fly up into the tree to get the kitten and they were jumping up and down and hollering! Sydney and Momma joined them! No one could believe what had just happened. No one except Sydney Claire. She always knew those pretty pink shoes, with the sparkles and the butterflies and the polka dot laces and the shiny wings were going to help her do amazing things.

And they did. Sydney Claire saved animals in trees and a little boy stuck on a roof and she helped her daddy get the hay in the very top of the barn where the ladder wouldn’t reach. Pretty soon, people from all over were calling Sydney on her sparkly pink phone and asking her and her shoes for help.

One day, a woman called from far away. She needed Sydney’s help in the most awful way. It had rained and rained and rained some more. The woman’s house was floating along in the water and no one could get to it! All her things were in it! No one could help her get any of it out! Only Sydney and her shoes with wings could help her. Sydney ran and found her Momma and Daddy and told them about the woman’s phone call.

“But Sydney, you’ll have to go so far to help! How long will you be gone?”

Sydney smiled and said, “Maybe a while Momma, but I will be okay. People need my help and God made these shoes just for me. If I didn’t use them to help the people God sent to me, what would happen to them?”

Momma and Daddy knew Sydney was right. People needed her. God put her here to help, so that’s what she had to do.

Sydney’s momma filled her pink backpack with snacks and drinks. She added her shaggy stuffed doggy and her blankie with the silky edges so Sydney would feel like home no matter where she traveled. Sydney slipped her arms in the straps and shrugged it on. She hugged her Momma and Daddy and her two brothers and bent down to make sure her polka dot laces were just tight enough.

“You be careful Sydney Claire, we are so proud of you!” Her Momma was a little sad but she knew Sydney was going on such a big adventure! Momma knew that God would keep Sydney tucked right up close to Him.

Sydney Claire ran down the driveway and down the road, the dust from the gravel kicking up behind her and she went faster and faster. The horses in the pasture ran along beside her, trying to keep up with her until started to rise. Up and up she went, higher and higher! Higher than anyone had ever seen her go. She turned her head around and waved to her family and to her animals and to her farm. She was so excited about all the things she was going to see and do. She was on her way to something wonderful!

If you ever see someone up in the sky, someone with a corn silk ponytail, chocolate eyes and sparkly pink shoes, don’t be alarmed, it’s Sydney Claire, and she’s off to help someone. Maybe you.