Adventures of the Tooth Fairy

I will never leave you nor forsake you. Joshua 1:5 (NIV)

I never realized what an interesting adventure it would be when I took on my new identity as the Tooth Fairy. You would think that since I've been exercising my role as the Tooth Fairy for almost 5 years now, I would be a professional at it. Not so. Sadly, I have made a few mistakes. Take for instance last week when Doodle lost a tooth and the Tooth Fairy actually slept through the night and forgot to pay a visit. Doodle was disappointed when her tooth was still in the tooth jar and there was no money.

I'm sad to admit, this wasn't the first time this happened. It first happened to Sunshine and she was sure to tell everyone at school the next day the sad tale of how the Tooth Fairy had forgotten her. She seemed not to be convinced when I told her my lame excuse that the Tooth Fairy was so busy that she ran out of time since so many other children had lost teeth on the same night. Lon suggested I tell her that the Tooth Fairy had the night off. I don't think Sunshine would have fallen for that excuse either. He also suggested I tell her that the Tooth Fairy had lost her own tooth and was preoccupied. None of these excuses worked. The following evening, she wrote the Tooth Fairy a letter about the incident, complete with an artist's rendition of what the Tooth Fairy looked like.

Or another adventure...one night, I stumbled through the dark at 2:00 a.m. in a frenzy thinking there was only four hours left until dawn's daylight and I (once again) nearly forgot again to trade money for a tooth. I reached groggily into my wallet in hopes that there was actually some money in there. I grabbed out a handful of coins, deposited them into a plastic baggie and made the trade. (Hint to first time Tooth Fairies, if you place the coins in a baggie, it makes less noise and therefore doesn't arouse suspicion in your child).

In the morning, I found out that if my children keep losing teeth, I'm going to have to take up a fund. Sunshine burst out of her room and exuberantly said, "Mom! Guess what?! The Tooth Fairy brought me $4!"

I gasped. The going rate at our house is $1, yet Sunshine had ended up with $4 and it wasn't even a "special" tooth. In the dark, I hadn't been paying attention that the coins I'd withdrawn from my wallet were not pennies, but quarters and dimes.

Last week, between my kids, they lost three teeth in one week. I was running out of change and was desperate, so I did the only logical thing a Tooth Fairy can do. I zipped out to the garage at midnight and found a pile of pennies on Lon's workbench. I scooped them up into a plastic baggie and made the trade. The next morning, Doodle had a strange look on her face. "Mom?" She asked, "Does the Tooth Fairy work with wood?"

"What?" I asked. This for sure topped the Tooth Fairy questions.

"Does the Tooth Fairy work with wood? See, I found this wood chip in the baggie with the money."

Apparently, a wood chip had slipped in from Lon's workbench. Go figure.

My friend, Lisa, and I were discussing Tooth Fairies the other day. Her kids are teens now, but she talked of how she still has their collection of teeth, but had forgotten to label them. She now has to do DNA on them to find out which dog tooth belongs to who. I am trying to learn from her error. I've placed each tooth in a baggie and marked the name of the child on the outside.

So what about all those questions about this amazing little fairy? "Mom, what does the Tooth Fairy do with all those teeth?" "How does she lift the tooth when she's so small?" "Why does she want teeth? Isn't that kind of weird?" "Where does she get the money?" "How does she decide how much to give?" "Why are some teeth worth more than others?" "What does she look like?" "Is she married?" "Is there only one or is there a family of Tooth Fairies?" and finally, "When I'm a 'big woman' [it's what my girls call female adults] can I meet the Tooth Fairy?" Depending on the day and whether or not I'm feeling creative, I can usually answer those questions with some degree of success.

Speaking of teeth, Sunshine wins the award for the most interesting ways of losing teeth. She's pulled out a few herself, let me pull out one, and let Lon pull out one. Those are all typical ways. Now for the atypical - she lost one tooth when she was wrestling Lon and bounced into his rock hard abs. Her tooth fell out immediately. She yanked three teeth at school of her own, plus a couple of other children in her class. (Do I see dentistry in her future?) She's lost a few biting into food, and finally, she pulled one at the dentist's office while awaiting a teeth-cleaning appointment. Doodle's only lost four teeth, so I'm sure there'll be some adventures in losing teeth in her future too.

Phew! Who knew that being a Tooth Fairy could be so interesting? But isn't it great to know that whether we are having a Tooth Fairy Adventure, settling sibling squabbles, or changing our 178th poopy diaper, God is there to help us every step of the way? He has promised He will never leave us nor forsake us, no matter what. He gave us the blessing of our children and will equip us to raise them. What an awesome God we serve!