Ten years ago right now I was laying in a hospital bed feeling desperate to deliver my baby. What would she look like? Would she have hair? Was she big or little? How was life going to be as a mommy? I was only 23...TWENTY THREE!! I was just a baby myself. I could do this, I remember telling myself. And then at 4:13pm my sweet 7lb 8oz 20.5 inch baby girl was born. She was perfect! She was bald with big blue eyes. I was in love.
Over the past decade she has learned to walk, talk, read, write, ride a bicycle, swim, play the piano, sing, work the computer way better than I can, and many other things. She has lived in 5 cities in 2 countries. She has gone to 6 schools (including preschools). She has learned to speak, read and write in a 2nd language...which was much more challenging than we ever expected, but she stuck it out. She has been scared to ask Jesus in heart because she thought it meant she would die immediately. But then one night she could not say no to His gentle knock and opened the door of her heart to His salvation. She was baptized by her daddy.
She is a beautiful singer. We are told by people all over how well she sings. She was asked to be in the choir at school this year. She is so creative and artistic...something she did not get from me. She is great problem solver. She is friendly and not afraid to talk to people. She has a HUGE heart to help others. She is kind and a very loyal friend. She is loving sister who (most of the time) is willing to give up something she loves for Macie to have the opportunity to use it.
She has read 4 & half of the Harry Potter books among countless others. She was a slow learner when she began to read. I wasn't sure she would ever get it, but she has surpassed her grade reading level greatly! She does math...in 2 languages...amazingly well.
And this is all just in the first 10 years. What will the next ten years hold? These may be the most difficult...we are seeing more attitude than we have ever seen, but we are also watching her learn self-control in a way we haven't seen before. I pray she learns this now before she is a real teenager. I pray that she uses this self-control as she receives more and more influences from the world around her. I can't isolate her...no matter how desperately I want to protect her from knowing all of the junk this world has to offer. I pray that God would protect her little heart from being hurt by mean girls and fleeting boyfriends. I pray she will always see the good in people and help the one that is not always loved by everyone else.
Most of all, I pray that she would grow in her knowledge and understanding of who God is. I pray that her relationship with Him would be her own and that she would see Him work in amazing ways in and through her life. She has a purpose on this planet. I pray that she would seek and find what that purpose is. I am so thankful for this unexpected, unplanned blessing that God gave us 10 years ago. I cannot imagine my life without her!
I love you Ella Christine!!
No comments:
Post a Comment