My heart is hurting

Last night Gary and I were discussing Ellie and her morning bus ride. We thought that two girls she has been sitting with don't like her. But in talking with Ellie this morning, she says there are other kids, not the girls she sits with, who make fun of her and laugh at her if she is dressed different. If she looks "normal" they leave her alone. I am unsure of when this has happened, but today is pajama day at school and yesterday she was really excited about that. Today, Ellie said she didn't want to wear pajamas so that the kids on the bus wouldn't laugh at her. If I had the car I would have driven her to school, so she could wear pajamas.

As she was talking about it, my eyes teared up, as they are now typing this, to hear that someone has verbally hurt my child.

I know that in this sinful world, she will encounter people like this, but I didn't think it would be this soon. She's only five, a kindergartner, her first bus experience, on a bus with children going to Christian schools, and she already has to deal with this problem.

I can't always protect her, and it hurts.