With a perfect spelling of the word ‘sponge,’ my daughter won today’s spelling bee for her 3rd grade class. She was proud of herself. I was too. Here is a girl who continues to make me happy with everything she does. Her love for learning is full of grace, full of possibilities and totally captivating. And she is only in the 3rd grade. They say she is truly my daughter. That we think and act alike with learning shouldn’t come as as surprise to me. I am after all her mother. But it does. She truly makes me happy when it comes to learning. Because of her, reading is a thing of pleasure. So also is make-believe as with the stories she puts together, especially the ones we tell each other at night. They say she is my daughter. I know. But she is also so much more than I could ever hope or dream of in a child. She is my father’s dream, his only hope like he would say, a better version of me and indeed full of hope. I am proud of her and I look forward to the future with so much zeal. For now, keep spelling my Belle.