Adah is 6!!!

I missed Adah's birthday blog somehow, so before I wrote on KINDERGARTEN, I felt I needed this one here too.  Since this blog is for my processing and my kids to read after I'm gone, I don't want to miss her birthday.

June 14, 2008 a day that is unforgettable to me and although it was six years ago, feels so recent.

The day Adah was born was a great day.  I didn't know I thought she was a boy, until the doctor told me she was a girl and I said "REALLY????" then as I looked at her in all her newness I kept saying, "I can't believe she is a girl ... It's really a girl ... Wow, a girl ..."

God knew what we needed, a girl.  Our house needed sparkles and twirls and high pitched stories and giggles - I didn't know it, but Adah is what was missing.

I didn't know what to name a girl.  I had a list of boy names, but nothing for a girl, until a few weeks before she was born, up late helping Joy write a paper over the phone, searching the Internet looking for Biblical names I found Adah, liked it immediately and then looked at the meaning ... beautiful addition.  (Ava had been on our list, but then in Ikea we seemed to trail a family with a little Ava and by the time we all checked out Ava was off my list.)  Then on June 14 I met Adah, indeed a beautiful addition, perfect name for the perfect girl for our family.  Not perfect by any means, but perfect for us.

She has been a beautiful addition to our family for 6 years now, so I will give you 6 of my favorite things about Adah - notice I said 6 of not 6, the list is very long.

Adah loves life.  She loves music and is always singing (slightly off key) and dancing.  She loves nature she picks flowers, rocks, sticks, you name it she has probably picked it up.  She then "investigates" things she finds with a magnifying glass.  We often have the "Mom, did you know..." talks.  She finds dirt, mud, and all things fun and filthy delightful.  Rain boots are an important part of our wardrobe.  How can you be girly and love mud?  I don't know, but Adah finds the balance.

Adah loves people.  Adah doesn't meet people she makes new friends.  She will say that's my new friend, I'll ask what is her name, she will answer I don't know, but she is my good friend.  Maybe that is what I will be like when I'm senile, I don't know her name, but she is my good friend.  She can take a bit to warm up to adults in an unusual situation, but once she does, watch out.

Adah is interesting.  You never really know what she is going to say or ask.  Some people may call it challenging, but those are the people who always feel challenged.  I think it's interesting, she isn't like everyone else and at this point doesn't feel the need to be, she is brave in herself.  She recognizes that is just how I am, feel, look ... and I hope it lasts forever.  Wouldn't this world be amazing if we were all good with who and how we are and expect other people to be who and how they are and look at each other as interesting instead of challenging.

Adah is a girl.  She giggles, she twirls. She loves dress up and is imaginative.  She can play and play and play with her dolls, stuffed animals.  She loves her brothers well and gets rough and tumble, but does it in her own dainty way.  She softens rough edges in us all.

Adah is quick. She is the girl who is always ready.  I don't have to talk her into changing plans or doing something different, she is up for it.  She tries new things and charges fearlessly ahead, leaving us catching up with her.  God is going to use this in a mighty way.  I've been praying that he will allow her wild spirit to lead her to His gain and that I will hold her tightly in my heart and prayers but with hands open when the time is right.  That the taming will come to help her move ahead in wisdom, but not in causing her to stop in fear.

Adah is mine.  Well, mine and Curtis's, but it's my blog I can claim her as my girl.  I look at her and remember her beginning, she was a good baby.  She didn't sleep well through the night consistently until she was 2, but that was OK.  I wouldn't trade those snugly moments with her for anything - well when she was 18 months, I probably felt differently - but now the blessings overwhelm me.  She knows how I work, better than I know how she works, but we are figuring that out.  She struggles with no meaning no, but so do I.  When I see her snuggled in her bed at night, I feel blessed because God trusted me with her and I didn't deserve His trust, but look at it with hope, knowing that He would only do that if He truly believed that I would be the best mom to help her grow into the woman He needs her to be to accomplish the plan He has for her.  My goodness, what a gift.