Happy Birthday, Sweet Pea! (12 Months)

Our dear baby girl,

For the rest of your life, I will constantly look at you and think, "How can this growing girl be the same tiny baby I held in my arms at the break of dawn that September morning?  How can time have gone this fast?"

From those first tickling flutters when I first felt you move, to this growing, fast-moving little girl with likes and dislikes and desires, I have been nothing but enamored with you.  You are quickly leaving your baby days behind you, scurrying as fast as you can to the next stage of your little life.  I have delighted in these baby days, from your first tiny coos and sighs and squeaks, to the new words and singing you delight us with now.  And that, my girl, is something to celebrate.

"I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful,  I know that full well."
Psalm 139:14

You continue to delight us daily.  Besides saying "woof!" when we ask what a doggy says, you now make a squinty face for a bunny, say "rawr!" for "What does a monster say?" and we're working on kitty and horse.  In these past weeks you have discovered how much fun it is to make people laugh, and you love to make your funny faces just to get a smile.  You love to smoosh your face against something and give kisses.  You think it's hilarious to stick your tongue out, and now you'll stick yours out too whenever I ask.  You think it's funny to put something in your mouth and till your head back with your eyes squinted (it's completely adorable) and you still think it's funny to make an "o" sound.

You are a mover and a shaker, and you are learning something new every day.  You move so fast it's getting really hard to take your picture!  You love to play catch, don't want to separated from Woof, your little stuffed dog, and your favorite toys are still your piano and your cloth vegetable set.  Your favorite foods seem to be chili (!) and bananas, but you love anything sweet.  Your favorite word the past few days is "horse," but you've also added beach, book, bye-bye, quack, and your cousin's name to your repertoire.  You also more clearly say, "Ah-la-loo!" for "I love you" and we about collapse with adoration every time you do it.  You still love to play chase, and lately your favorite activity is to climb any and every thing you can.

A blur of motion, baby!

You did so many fun new things this month, like going to the fair.  It's fun to take you places and do things because every time it seems brand-new to you all over again.  When we went to the beach, it suddenly dawned on you one day how incredibly fun it is there.  You suddenly discovered the sand, and it just clicked.  We made you and your cousin a big hole to play in, and you just adored slipping and sliding into it.

  

We are so proud of you, baby, and we just adore spending time with you.  You are so fun and silly and we just can't get enough of you.  So many other people love and adore you, too, and we are so blessed by them and their friendship.

Miss Sandy asked me the other day what I dream about for your future.  I actually think about it a lot, more that you'll ever know.  But when I dream about your future, I don't ever see any grandiose visions.  Not, of course, that I don't believe you're capable of anything and everything you set out to conquer; I believe that you can and will do with your life exactly what God calls you to do.  It's just that it doesn't matter at all to me what you do in this life, but how you go about it.  My heart's desire is that you face life with the quiet confidence of someone who knows she is deeply, unfathomably loved by a God who gave His life for you.  With that knowledge comes wisdom and discernment, love and faithfulness, joy and peace.  It gives you strength to face hardship and joy in simple moments.  It gives you a kind and compassionate heart and the ability to notice the needs of others.  It doesn't make you perfect, but it tells you that you were bought with a price because your value exceeds anything else the world has to offer.

"If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing." 

I Corinthians 13:1-3

You can be whoever and do whatever you want to be, sweet girl, and I will delight in you regardless.  All that matters to me is that you follow the words of Jesus in Matthew 22:  "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."  Romans 8:38-39

"The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save.  He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with
His love, He will rejoice over you with singing."  Zephaniah 3:17

We are so blessed that we get to be the ones to love you with our whole hearts, in a way that points you to the love of Christ.  We want to hold you and cuddle you and tell you constantly how much we love you, and it amazes me that all the love I have for you is only a shadow of how much God loves you.  All I want is for you to be safe and secure in the knowledge of how deeply you are loved.

"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,  so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,  may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."  Ephesians 3:16-21

Happy Birthday, Sweet Pea!  I can't wait to celebrate the day with you.

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