Okay, here is the start of a long story about this event that began many, many years ago! My mom never pierced her ears and wasn't going to allow us to pierce our ears either. She would use the daughters of Zion scriptures in Isaiah as proof that ear piercing was not a good thing! When I was fourteen, I finally convinced my Mom that ear piercing was not inherently a bad thing, that the earrings talked of with the daughters of Zion were descriptors, rather than a statement of the evils of ear piercing! My mom relented with that argument and I, and all my sisters, except for Deborah, who was five, got our ears pierced at the same time. I was vindicated in my argument when Pres. Hinckley said that one pair of earrings was attractive and feminine.When I became a parent, Curtis and I determined for our family, that we had enough things that would be definite no(s) or definite "have to wait fors" i.e. no dances until 14, no dating until 16, no steady dating until you can consider marriage, keeping the sabbath day holy every single week, the word of wisdom along with strong discouragement about caffeinated drinks and other possibly addictive substances, bathing suits that have coverage, and the list goes on....that ear piercing would not be in that list. We also didn't want it to become a huge deal, because of some teen-age age limit imposed, when there were so many more important and eternal issues we wanted our children to take seriously. When our girls wanted to pierce their ears, and had shown they were mature enough to be responsible for it, it would be fine. I also found out that if you want to minimize the possible side-effect of keloid formation that there was significantly less risk in studies if ear piercing was done before the age of 11, or the beginning of puberty.
Brianna has wanted earrings for a while, and had shown that she was mature enough to be responsible for it, but she was afraid of the process of getting her ears pierced. Her friend Grace got her ears pierced years ago and it was so cute. She would ask us to describe how much it hurt over and over again. Her courage and desire increased when we went camping with Curtis' family and her cousin Emily had just pierced her ears. Finally, over the weekend, Brianna decided to take the plunge. We all trekked to the University Mall (where they do it a lot) and we were quite the troupe. My sisters Elizabeth and Deborah who are home for the summer, Curtis who is off work, and my sister Rachael who was over at our house, all came along. We chose some pretty pink sparkly daisies. She was a little freaked out but they pierced them at the same time so it wouldn't be as "traumatic" and now she is so proud of herself for going through with it. She loves her new earrings and she looks so feminine with them. She immediately told me that I just had to blog about it.....So, here's Brianna with her "new" look!
