My Faithful Scout

My all time favorite book (and the movie wasn't bad either) is "To Kill A Mockingbird." I don't know why the book has stayed with me all these years. Was it the writing? Was it the subject? Was it just my age when I read it? I don't know.

I do know that I wanted to name a daughter "Scout" after the precocious main character in the book. She was an early reader. She was a tomboy, didn't like girl clothes or things in her hair and was a tough as any boy in the book. But she did have a compassionate heart for the forgotten or ignored. She also had a fiery sense of justice.

I couldn't get Scott to agree to "Scout" for a girl's name. Something about a name of a dog. Either it was his dog's name or it sounded like a dog's name. He wouldn't even agree to it as a nickname.

Then Faith started going up. She's my fiery one. She's a tomboy. Doesn't like anything in her hair, just likes it long, loose and looking like a rat's nest. She'll wear dresses, but not stockings, and only if it is her idea. She has no fear. When she was little she'd jump off stairs, furniture, etc. expecting you to catch her. I guess if there was a time we didn't catch her, she'd might have stopped.

She crawled out of her crib. I know Jonathan never did and I can't remember if Joshua did or didn't. Jonathan was three and a half and still didn't climb over the fence we put in front of his door at night. Then 18 month old Faith climbed over hers and then over his to get into his room. She taught him how to climb over gates. She taught him how to climb on to kitchen counters to get what they wanted. She taught him were all my secret hiding places were for markers, glue and scissors. I could leave all these things out with my two boys...but now with Faith. We had a bleach trail from our master bathroom to our bed in our carpet from her opening some cleaner and carrying it upside down.

After the last incident I called her my "Faithful Scout" for awhile. I tell Scott, "She's going to be trouble. She's going to get to high school two years after Jonathan and show him how to play hooky and how to smoke in the boy's room."

And don't think I'm exaggerating. Here is what she wrote in her journal this summer, "I don't want to go to college. I want to be an artist. I don't want to be married but I want to have kids." I don't think she could aspire to be any more opposite of what we want for her. Well, I don't mind the artist part, just get a college degree to fall back on.

Two Christmases ago we watched "To Kill A Mockingbird" with Gregory Peck. It was the first time Joshua had seen the movie. Throughout the entire movie and even beyond his mantra has been, "How could you have possibly known that Faith would be just like Scout? She wasn't even born yet when you wanted to name her Scout."

Either I'm plugged in really well to my Lord, who gave me some insight, or it became a self fulfilling prophecy.