Double Digits

Today we joyfully celebrated Michaela's tenth birthday.  She shares her birthday with Grandma Diana.  It's a lot of fun when we are here in Florida and can get together for dinner, cake, and presents. 

I cannot believe she is ten years old.  She...leaves me speechless.  Seriously, I've started three sentences and I can't find the right words to say what I want to say.  She is not a perfect person.  She gets in fights with her siblings, and has enough sass sometimes to make me wonder if she is actually fourteen instead of ten.  But she is incredibly sweet and loving.  She loves me in a remarkable way, even when I have fallen far short of being a good mom.  She is very patient with her sister.  She and Christian can still create imaginative scenarios and play together for a long time.  She is smart, and talented in so many ways.  Her poise surpasses mine at her age (or now). 

I wish I could go back sometimes to the first couple of years of her life.  I feel like that, in particular, went by very fast.  I was pregnant with Christian by the time she was one and a half, and when he was born she became my big girl.  She went along with it beautifully.  We would sit on the couch and nurse our babies together.  Or read.  Or she would run loops through our apartment, pit-stopping every now and then at his blanket (or at my lap) to give him a tickle or smile at him.  Since I was holding him all of the time, I didn't get to give her baby-girl/big-girl toddler/preschool snuggles as much.  She was already so big (it seemed).  And I didn't realize what I was missing, since I had never done this mom thing before.

This year I want to do a good job appreciating her for the little girl that she is and the young lady that she is becoming.  I want to be a good example to her of so many things:  homemaker, follower of Christ, wife, mom, fun-lover.  And I really want her to be happy.  I think this last year was stressful for everyone, and that she quietly carried around a great burden that she didn't even understand or truly know she was carrying.  I pray that this year is different, even though it may be a slow change.  May it be an intentional one.

I love this girl.

Happy Birthday, Michaela.  You will always be our baby girl.