Happy Golden Birthday, Bug!

Dear Lily,

Happy golden birthday! You're three! How quickly three years have gone...there are so many things I love about your age right now. I'd like to just bottle them up and keep them forever. I hope that this blog will be a tangible way for you to see how much we enjoyed you at this age. Since I haven't written it down before, I'll tell you about when you were born on this day three years ago!

On December 2nd, it was very cold. We were house-sitting for a lady who spent winters in AZ. Daddy wanted to check out a spot for his fish house on a lake across the road. I was totally up for a walk, since you always kept me extra warm and the chilly weather sounded nice. We crunched our way outside and walked under the stars, marked out a good spot for the fish house and headed back home. We went to bed soon after that. About ten minutes after I laid down, I felt something funny and told daddy, "That was wierd." It literally felt like you had a little hammer in there and banged on my tummy twice. [Very strange, I know!]. I guess you wanted out! Soon after, I started having contractions. The nurses at the hospital told us to wait at home for an hour and then come in. So we did. By the time I got to the hospital, you were almost ready to be born! Just 2 1/2 hours after you "banged" on my tummy, you were born! At 12:59am on December 3rd, we met you for the first time! It was amazing, and we couldn't believe how big, perfect, and beautiful you were! You weighed 8 lbs 4 oz and were 22 3/4 inches long. We thought it was pretty cool that, since you were born in the middle of the night, no one knew you were even here yet for about 6 hours. You were our little secret. Around 7:00 that morning, though, we couldn't take it anymore and started calling everyone we knew to tell them that you were here. :)

On your birth announcements we included James 1:17 "Every good and perfect gift comes from above..." You are still a good and perfect gift to us. You are exactly what God planned for our family and have brought us tons of joy, laughter, and lessons :).

These days, you are your own little person. You love to pretend that you are mommy or daddy and are an awesome big sister. You like to do things your own way and really, learn best when you have the opportunity to try things out for yourself. You are very independent in that way. You love books. You 'read' them to yourself all the time, and will sit for hours and hours if someone reads to you. You are hilarious. You are always talking and have always been a very verbal kid. Lately, your favorite thing at bedtime is for Daddy to tell you Skippy the Squirrel stories. He made one up one night and has had to think of more and more "chapters" to the story. You are good for our imaginations. You are starting to ask us about God. We can tell that you will need an answer to a lot of your "but why?" questions in life and about God. We pray that you'll be satisfied in God, and rest knowing Him.

We feel unbelievably blessed to be your parents, even when it's not always easy. We're so thankful for each day - and year - God has given us with you and pray that it will be many, many more. You're a gift, Lily Faith! Happy birthday, bugaboo!