Dear (5 year old) Lucy,

Dear Lucy,

I can't believe you are five years old today! But then I look at you and you are such a little (big?) girl now. I've loved watching your personality and gifts emerge more this year.

I like to think of you as my little Anne Shirley. You just love to learn about everything. Not just math and reading (although your always asking to do those with me!) but you're always asking the most interesting questions about everything you could possible think of from questions about God and Jesus to what bugs eat. I just never know what you're going to be thinking. You love big words and books and stories and I'm so glad I've got a fellow book worm in the making.

 I can see all those stories pop up in your play but you always go above and beyond with what you come up with.You're still not the most social child. I used to think you were going to be shy but that's not really it. You just don't need other kids, you've got a whole world in your head.  If we've got friends playing over at the house and they are all playing together, you'll probably be found up in another part of the yard, just dancing around or immersed in whatever fantasy you have going on. You're my little imaginative fairy child.

The one exception to your playing is Jonah. You two just love each other and while you can drive each other crazy sometimes a lot of the time, at the end of the day when your both tucked in your beds in your room, you always call out to each other "I love you, do you love me?" "Yes I love you too" and it melts my heart. You've learned this year that, sadly, you can't marry him when you grow up so now you just say, "let's pretend to get married Jonah. It's okay if its just pretend." And it is. It's adorable. Although somehow you think that means you get to boss him around, let's pretend that doesn't say anything about me.

Alas, another similarity to Anne Shirley is your temper. And neither your dad nor I quite know where you got the dramatic flair you have. Oh my, the drama! I can't even count the number of times you are "never coming out of your room" or "never playing again." - but you also work very hard to control yourself and you have come so far that it makes me smile in pride to think of it. You asked Jesus to be your "rescuer" earlier this year and now when you struggle with something, you'll ask me if it would be good to pray and ask God for help with it. You are my little prayer warrior. I have rarely seen anyone, young or old, so persistent and consistent in their prayers, both for certain requests (a baby!) and in thanksgiving for what God has given you. When you were born, my biggest hope for you would be that you would grow to love the Lord and follow him and I know that my memories of watching your faith become your faith is a treasure I will keep in my heart and ponder for many years.

You love princesses and fairy tales and pink and all things pretty and sparkly. You even say your favorite letter is p because pink and purple begin with p! But you're not afraid to play in the mud and rescue "cute little wormies" that are on our driveway and make sure they get safely back into the dirt.

You love drawing pictures and doing art projects. You're always asking me for "real art lessons" and "real piano lessons.". Even without lessons, you like to sit at the piano and play high notes and low notes and tell me what characters they represent in the song you invented.

I love how confident you are. You'll just come up to me after getting dressed and tell me how pretty you look. Or show me a picture you drew and tell me what a great job you did. Or finish a page of reading, turn to me and say "I'm doing a really good job reading, aren't I?" You can be pretty hard on yourself if something isn't working out just how you imagine so I appreciate these times. You are just as likely to praise someone else as yourself and it isn't really vanity or your trying to make others think well of you, you just say what you think and you think you're pretty great. And so do I!