Dear Neighbor

Dear Neighbor,

I just want to say thank you. Thank you for allowing your daughter to play in our house.

Although we have a lovely home with kind people, responsible supervision, good snacks, and fun games, some are uncomfortable sending their kids here. Not that anyone has told me so straight-out, but I can tell. Excuses are kinder than the truth, but they still sting.

And you, despite the fact that we have OTD kids, still have made absolutely no changes in our children’s friendship. Despite our dog, which we got to help heal our kids. Despite the way some of my kids dress, and despite the chillul Shabbos that happens — usually not overtly, but we never really know.

Neighbor, our frum kids need your kids more than ever. It’s hard for them to handle their non-frum siblings. They already feel embarrassed and different. They struggle, despite our best efforts to help them by explaining what our rabbanim have explained to us: that these OTD neshamos are special and precious, that they’re struggling, that Hashem has chosen us to lead them on their difficult journey, that we must fill our home with love.