another page has turned

I began this post on our sweet Addy's birthday in November, and as I waded today through posts started and never finished, I discovered this, her birthday letter. In the midst of holidays and trips away,  I never hit "publish" and in my list of drafts it has sat unfinished.  

Addy-girl, your mama is just that, unfinished, far from perfect, a work in progress, so there are things in my life yet unfinished.  So please forgive me for not posting this sooner. It may have been incomplete, I may be incomplete but He who promised is faithful "and I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you [in me] will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ"  He who begins, always finishes. I trust that in my own life and I trust it in yours as well.

Addy,

My fingers can't seem to find a rhythm, my heart containment or my words definition.  Another page has turned and a chapter closed...the third year of your life has ended and the fourth just begun.  Sweet Addy-girl, you turned four today!  Four.  I don't know how it can go so quickly, how you can change so much and I know for mothers like mine whose baby is thirty-something, they may laugh that I am struck by the number 4, but I am none-the-less.

Addy, you are a remarkable little girl. God has given you so many gifts and as your mama, I pray that He will teach me how to teach you to use them for His glory.  You are a very smart-little cookie.  You have countless facts and Bible verses stored up in your head, you remember everything you see and hear--everything. Right now you are so frustrated with me because you can't read for yourself and you want to so badly to learn on your own. Like me, you long to snuggle up with a good book and read for hours. I love that you challenge us, bringing to us the "chapter" books you find on the shelves, day after day wanting to read another chapter in "Laura"  We've made it through the Little House in the Big Woods and have moved on to the prairie. 

You love to tell "jokes" and sing and dance and since your birthday last year, our home has become a perpetual grand ball with twirling and dancing and shimmering dresses and sparkling shoes. You live in an alternate reality and we are never really sure who you are--Cinderella? Truly Scrumptious? Sacajawea? Belle? Maria? But what I love is that in whatever world you are in and whoever the antagonist may be, your answer is always to tell them about Jesus.  In fact you want to tell everyone about Jesus. Whether it is our adult catholic neighbor and you wanting me to explain Reformation Day and Martin Luther and the reason we aren't Catholic or your neighbor-friend who asks you if your parents yell at each other and you answer "no, Jesus wants us to be kind, do you know Jesus?" you want to tell everyone about Him. You grow me, challenge me, and truly help me to see our street and our home as a mission field.

Addy, David said in Psalms "On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother's womb you have been my God" and we know that at all ages God can quicken hearts to trust Him, so we pray that this fruit we see in your life is truly evidence of saving grace.  We trust Him in this work He is beginning... 

Last month after arriving home from our monthly communion Sunday at church you asked "Mama, when is there going to be kiddo-communion?"

I explained to you what we believe communion represents, the reminder of Christ's body broken for us, the remembering of blood shed for the sins of His people. I gently said that once you trust God and believe that the cross was Christ's finished work and that there is nothing in us, but in Christ alone that makes us acceptable before our Heavenly Father, then, then you can take communion with us.

With hands in the air, exasperation in your voice, you pleaded "But, Mama, I do believe!"

And so Addy, just a couple weeks ago, with solemness in your demeanor and quivering hands you took your first communion and afterward in worship you went crazy--singing, dancing, laughing.  In those moments you reminded me how we should all approach the Lord's table, with great solemness, in all seriousness, and you taught me how we should leave the table, with great joy, hearts bursting in song, rejoicing in Christ's finished work. While there is no saving work in the act of taking communion, we trust God that when you exclaimed "Mama, I do believe," that He has indeed begun a good work in you and Addy, we pray and trust that He who began a good work is faithful and He will see it to completion.

You are so precious to us dear one. We love you and are so blessed to be your parents.  Your intellectual astuteness keeps me on my toes and your desire to know Christ keeps me on my knees. Your laughter brings such joy to this mama's heart and I am privileged to watch as God grows you into the woman He created you to be.

We love you, Addy.  Happy Birthday!

Please note that Addy loves Angel food cake and rainbows.  And well, she loved my attempt at rainbow glaze even though it looked just as "interesting" in person as it does in this picture.