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Hey Baby, (yes, you will always be my baby just as Mimi has always said to me about me), you’re seven. Halfway to fourteen. One third of the way to twenty-one. Yikes.
What do I want you to know someday about these days we’re living now? …hm…
I want to thank you, first of all. You’re such a gracious little girl. Forgiving and kind and easy to please. You are so easy on me when I mess up. Unconditionally loving. You are grateful and have a good heart that wants to please us. You desire to do what is right and seek to do it. You have been such a blessing to us in the seven years we’ve known you, and I think the blessings are growing exponentially with every passing year. It is so fun to watch you grow up, to see you learn, become more than a baby, more than possibility, to actualize some of who you are.
You like to make things. You love crafts and drawing and writing and building lego sets, following instructions, starting and completing projects. You are learning to love to read. The better you get at it, the more you love it. You’ll be getting a lot of books for your birthday and Christmas this year. It’s so exciting knowing that the literary world is about to explode open in front of you. I hope you always love reading as much as I do. I imagine the day when you read Little Women for the first time and we get to talk about who are favorite sisters are. I think I will re-read everything you read just so we can talk about it. We’ll have our own little book club. Perhaps. Nancy Drew…. Gosh. And eventually C.S. Lewis, not just the Chronicles of Narnia, but the deeper stuff. I can’t wait to have these conversations with you! I am already getting tastes of sharing real life stuff with you.
But I get ahead of myself. You are still little. Still very little. Sometimes I forget how little. When I asked you what kind of party you wanted (in a conscious effort to allow you to be you and not make all the decisions for you, something you will let your sometimes bossy Mommy do given your compliant nature), you chose a princess party, no surprise. At first I wanted to try to steer you away from it, steer to you to something less trite, but I stopped myself realizing that this may be the last year that a princess party interests you. And you are likely my only little princess. Be a princess, baby. I will watch you revel in it and love every moment of watching you be little before we move on to the next thing and princesses become a thing of the past. Those kinds of thoughts jab at a Mother’s heart. I think mother must have coined the word bittersweet. So many things about being a parent are that. It is wonderful to watch you grow and sad to lose who you used to be.
You love simple traditions, like driving by the golf course on the way home from school rather than going the most direct way. It excites you every time. You adore playing Super Mario Brothers with me or Daddy or both of us, even though you prefer to stay “bubbled” most of the time we’re playing. You come home every day from school missing one item or another that you had with you when you left home… ice packs, water bottles, tupperware, sweaters, coats. Almost every day. Meanwhile the food I send for you to eat, most of that makes it back home just fine. I don’t know how you get through the days on so little food. But who can be bothered with eating when there is so much playing to be done I suppose. I’m glad you have so much fun at school. You really do love going.
In answers to a video interview I did with you today, here are some quick facts about you at 7, according to you. Your favorite colors are red, pink, green, and purple. Your favorite food is macaroni and cheese, and cheeseburgers and pizza, and chicken nuggets. Your favorite candy is lollipops and chocolate. Your favorite place is Disneyland. That is where you want to live (near there) with your family and 3 children, since you want to be a mommy when you grow up… AND a baker. You answered “6 feet” when I asked how tall you are and told me you thought I might be “17?” years old. Your best day ever would include going “camping by the sea.” If you had a million dollars you would “give some to poor people” and buy your kids toys and candy… and some candy for yourself too. You think Josiah will be a “truck and train maker” when he grows up. You like playing “family” with him (he’s the Dad, you’re the Mom) and hate when he hits, pinches and kicks you (don’t blame you there, the little nugget, though he generally is doing those things playfully.) You are afraid of snakes, spiders and ghosts. You like to “learn about Jesus” at school and “play cats” on the playground. Your favorite things to do are “watch TV and color and play with your computer.” You named about 7 or 8 girls as your best friends at school. Most of them will be at your birthday party today.
You seem to make friends easily and get along with most. You do your homework with never a complaint. You get ready in the mornings with minimal prodding. You are obedient, a little scatterbrained at times perhaps, but almost never, literally almost never defiant. You’re just a good kid.
I know that the Lord is and has already worked so much in your heart. I see Him in you. I pray you always want to know Him, that you always desire to be close to him and that those desires are always the primary motivation for every decision you make in life. I want you to love Him because you know Him and know Him because you seek him and seek Him because you know deeply, unquestioningly, how very much He loves you. May God fill your heart with the richness of faith that will keep you from looking for life in places where there are only lies and death and darkness. May He be your Way, your Truth, your Life. Always. May your faith be yours. May you find Him and never lose Him. Cling to Him, Adela. You can go through life, through anything, with the Lord by your side. He promises to never leave you, to help you, to take hold of your right hand, to teach you, comfort you, guide, strengthen you, and that the weight of glory that shall be revealed in us surpasses anything that overtakes us in this life. We have the ultimate hope. We live in a broken world. I know that I cannot protect you from everything. But I know that I can point you to the one who can get you through anything. He is the answer. Never ever lose sight of that. No matter what. It is my greatest, deepest desire for you. Know who your God is, the one true God, and never let Him go.
May he bless you and keep you and be gracious to you. May he turn his face to you and give you peace. I love you my little Silly Willy ‘Dela. You are a joy to this Momma’s heart. And I am so thankful God let me be your Mommy.
Happy Birthday, Baby!
