Free A Test of Faith by Karen Ball

Faith’s smile was pure anticipation as she drifted off to sleep.
    Faith sailed through her first two years of school. She’d been a favorite with her teachers, who sang her praises at parent-teacher conferences. Creative. Personable. Bright. Outgoing. All words Anne heard to describe her daughter.
    Now, it was time for third grade. Jared had taken the morning off so he could be there to share in the excitement.
    That morning, they barely got their exuberant daughter to sit still for breakfast. She and Jared kept breaking into song and then into laughter. Faith loved singing choruses and praise songs with her father, and their voices blended with a pure beauty that stole Anne’s breath at times.
    She joined in from time to time at Faith’s insistence, though she enjoyed listening. By the time breakfast was over, Faith was all but dancing as they gathered her things together and headed out the door. Anne walked beside Jared, her hand nestled in his, and watched Faith skipping ahead, listening to her clear, sweet voice sing out, “
This is the day, this is the day, that the Lord has made…
”
    It almost broke Anne’s heart.
    Of course she was happy Faith was so excited about going to school. But that happiness couldn’t erase what lay within—the painful awareness that with each passing year, Faith was taking steps away from her.
    Her daughter stopped suddenly and pointed. “Mom! Dad! Look! My school!”
    How Anne longed to share the excitement ringing in her daughter’s voice. Instead, she had to fight the driving urge torun forward, pull her baby into her arms, beg her not to grow up … grow away. But even if it had been physically possible, there was no way on earth anyone would stop Faith from plunging headlong into this new adventure.
    A bit different from your first day of school, eh?
    As different as midnight from noonday. Anne could still remember how hard it had been all through grade school. On the first day of school, from first grade through fourth, Anne clung to her mother, weeping, begging to go home. She remembered staring at the large, imposing building, how she’d been surrounded by adults she didn’t know and children she hadn’t seen for months. The very thought of staying in that place had terrified her.
    “Holy cow! Lookit all the new kids for me to play with!”
    Faith’s rapturous tone tugged Anne’s lips into a smile as she followed the direction of her daughter’s gaze. Children scampered across the playground, laughter ringing in the air around them.
    “You’re going to have a great time this year, kiddo.”
    Anne had no doubt Jared was right. Faith would be in the middle of everything in no time. People were drawn to her. Even as an infant, total strangers had remarked on how beautiful and engaging Faith was, how her tinkling laughter could draw a smile from the sourest soul. No surprise, then, that Anne’s baby girl had grown into a little social butterfly whose ease among strangers never ceased to amaze her own mother.
    Anne slipped her hands into her jacket pockets as they walked past the children and went to Faith’s classroom.
    “Welcome, Faith!” Her teacher was a lovely older woman with a soft crown of salt-and-pepper curls. Soft brown eyes sparkled from behind her glasses, and the tiny crinkles peeking out from the corners of her eyes bore clear testimony to the woman’s penchant for smiling. “I’m Mrs. Rice. And I’m so glad to have you with us.”
    Mrs. Rice winked at Anne and Jared as she showed them around the room. “And this—” the woman’s sweet, weathered face smiled down at Faith—“is your desk.”
    Faith’s mouth opened in a gasp of pure delight, and shesmoothed her hands over the wood top, then slid onto the seat as though she’d sat there a hundred times before.
    Anne studied her daughter’s glowing features. What was it like to feel at home no matter where you were? To look forward to, rather than dread, being in new places, meeting new