Friendship

I had a great great reminder of how important friendships are this past Sunday. First, a little background. S is now 7 1/2 and every year, or rather twice a year, our Church has the kids get up front and sing. She has never made it through without crying and it's a little bit of a struggle every year. There is always the question of if we should try and bribe her into staying up there or just hope that she grows out of it. This year we decided to not push her. If she wanted to do it she would do it and if not, that is okay. It is not vital to her growth as a person at this stage in her life to make her stand up there and sing.

So, that brings us up to this past Sunday. She hadn't said she would or that she wouldn't go up there. Scott and I had both encouraged her to go up there and sing and both sets of grandparents were here to watch her and her brother and sister. As we went into the sanctuary during practice she didn't want to go up there and I just stepped back and then something that made me cry happened. She had two friends walk up next to her and grab her hands. I don't think they realized the significance of what they were doing, but it was indeed very significant. With the support of two very dear friends S made it through both practice and the actual performance in Church.

This meant so much to this mother's heart. Our friends mean a lot to us and I can name several times when friends of mine haven't necessarily literally held my hands to get me through something tough, but they were there to support and encourage me and get me through something tough. I am very thankful that my daughter has already started to form some of these meaningful friendships. I am also very thankful to my friends for there continued love, encouragement and support to me and my family through the years. It means a lot to us all!!!

I had to include this one of C-Girl. She had no stage fright and sang through both songs!

C also enjoys getting in front of people.

Birthdays

I've been spending more and more time praying for our child who isn't with our family yet. I think a lot of it has to do with having a birthday, Thanksgiving and now Christmas coming up so close together. It's a time of year where I really enjoying having as much of our family around as we can and we have a child that is not with us and that's hard to think about. So, I do what I can and I pray. I pray for our child's safety and that God will protect her heart and help prepare her to live with our family and leave the only home she's ever known and come live in a strange land with strange people. Lord willing, by this time next year our child will be living with us and we'll be celebrating birthdays and holidays together!

I thought I'd post some pictures or our 3 kids here at home and their birthday celebrations from this last year. It's fun to see how different and unique their personalities are and how that comes out in celebrating their birthdays.

C's birthday comes first in June. He always has a sports birthday, he just always needs to pick a different sport every year. This year it was soccer.

He does love his super heroes!

S's birthday is next in July. She typically has had some sort of animal birthday every year, but her passions have changed a little this last year and she went with a President's birthday party. Everyone had to dress like someone from the period of the Revolutionary war to the Civil war and then they had to give clues so people could guess who they were.

  

 Her whitehouse cake with all the presidents on it!

C-Girl kept changing her mind about what kind of cake she wanted. (I know shocking for a 2 year old to not be able to make up their mind) She finally decided on a Hunter cake (our dog).

She lost her nose!

There it is!

Fun with the tongue!