things to remember today

Today I want to remember that Ada cried when she got out of the car for school this morning.  She doesn't like being away from me, and she hates running at PE, so she has decided that her tummy hurts when she thinks about school AND she doesn't like it.  My heart aches for her.  It kills me to watch her struggle, and yet I know I can't rescue her from that.  I want to remember how proud I am of her for going to school today...in a chapel uniform with lots of buttons.

Today I want to remember that Isaac still likes to hug me.  He hugs me long and hard, squeezing my squishy middle with all of his strength and I love it.  He loves school and loves to learn, and I am proud of him too.

I want to remember going to Target with Gabe.  I got him a blue raspberry Icee and he sat in the cart and we talked all the way through the store.  I ended up with wheat thins and dove chocolates because he was with me and wanted them.  I love to hear him talk.  I want to remember that he always takes his shoes off, so most places we go, he's barefoot and his shoes are in my purse.  He fell asleep on our way to Michaels.  He slept all the way through the store, his warm, sweaty body safe in my arms.  He took a 3 hour nap today.  I missed him.  He also cried when I dropped him off at Bible Study.  It was his first day.  It stunk to leave him, but he was singing about God making the world when I got back to get him and he was having a blast.  He is so wonderful.

I want to remember Jeremy teaching at church tonight.  He did a great job.  I love hearing him deliver wisdom to parents.  He has gotten way more comfortable teaching.  He is good at it.  Gabe sat in my lap the whole time.  I loved it.

I'm busy with a lot right now.  I don't want to miss the important stuff while I'm trying to figure out my life...

well, a year has gone by.

So, it's been a year since I last recorded any thoughts here, which honestly makes me sad.  So much has happened in this year that is beautiful and wonderful and hard and good and is God's great work in our lives.  I hate not to remember all of it.  I hope our pictures will tell the story of those days at least in part.  We were the incredibles for halloween last year, we stayed in Nashville for Thanksgiving at the Shapiros, and we had a fantastic polar express party for ada's 4th birthday.  We got elves at Christmas time who did fun creative things all over our house, and we spent advent making "conversation jars" for our friends.  We loved having family over for soup on Christmas Eve, and Christmas was fun too.  Afterwards we escaped to the beach for a few days before coming back to start school, celebrate Jeremy's 38th birthday, and to celebrate Isaac turning 6!  We invited his class to a big wild west "wanted" party.  It was so much fun!  In February, we went to DISNEYWORLD!!!  Such a delightful dream come true!  Nana and Papa T took us and we did so much fun stuff.  We can't wait to go back.  Wow.  It was amazing.  We went to the beach for Spring Break with the grandmothers, and then Isaac started baseball and Ada geared up for her "Baby Face" recital.  Gabe tags along, happy to be where his siblings are and still not really talking very much.  Kindergarten ended, which made me so sad and so grateful--Isaac wanted to stay in Mrs Brown's class another year and every night since has read his yearbook, studying the kids in his school faithfully.  We started our summer with a quick trip to Montreat with the Leims and the Nolens, which was really fun, and we then came back for swimming lessons.  The big kids learned so much this year in lessons!  They are like little fish now!  Jeremy went to Arizona to visit GiGi for her 90th birthday and we went to Memphis to throw Whitney a baby shower.  We came back to VBS, which was a great experience for all of us.  The kids got into helping raise money for Habitat, so we had a lemonade stand to do it, and made $57.  Crazy!  We went to Monteagle for Father's Day and had an awesome time playing and riding bikes.  Jeremy came back to Nashville but we stayed an extra day.  Ada fell off the monkey bars, and as it turns out, broke her arm in two different places.  She wore a spunky pink cast for 3 weeks and rocked it!  We had a great time celebrating Gabe's 2nd birthday with a "Gabe is turning 2.  Take 2 Parade" for the 4th of July.  It was really fun to decorate bikes and hang with friends in honor of our littlest dude.  We enjoyed a few days at the beach after that as a family and it was super special because we are normally only at the beach in the spring and winter, so being there when we could actually play in the water was awesome.  After that we stepped into our biggest undertaking of the summer--Camp Watermelon!  It was amazing!  We had 40 campers, 8 counselors and a whole lot of fun.  God showed up.  Thankfully I recorded some of it in emails to parents, so those memories aren't all lost--I am already excited about doing it again next year!  We did one final trip to Memphis at the end of the summer to swim and go to the zoo.  We loved our time there.  As school started up, I unexpectedly began a new job working 10 hours a week for the youth ministry at FPC.  It's been a busy fall so far, but both Isaac and Ada are loving school and we are all making it just fine.  Isaac started first grade in Mrs. Ford's class and Ada began 2 days each week at St. B's.  She also does 3 hours most Thursday mornings at Encore.  We started flag football and dance and gymnastics and Wednesday night church since Jeremy is teaching a parenting class during choir time for the kids.  He's doing a great job with it and with his counseling, on top of trying to publish his first children's book.  As I think about how I am writing the story of our last year, it sounds so amazing and wonderful.  Aside from a broken bone, I haven't reflected on a single thing that felt hard or sad.  We have had plenty of that this year--it IS hard.  this is hard.  our days are good, but they are hard.  they aren't so hard that we are crushed under them--they are the kind of hard that puts just enough tension on our strings that hopefully our lives are making music.  or at least noise of some sort that honors god.  I am grateful.  I am grateful for the long, hard, good, rich days.  We don't have much time to rest, though we are sleeping all night most nights and that makes a HUGE difference in my presence everyday.  We have so much to be thankful for.  We are so blessed.  Oh my.

We had a nutty weekend last weekend.  We went from thing to thing to thing.  Jeremy forgot to pick Isaac up at school on Friday, which made me feel like we were crushed before we even started.  Thankfully he loves school so much, he just rolled with it.  "Mommy, guess who was the LAST kid picked up today?"  Two blessings from our busy weekend: 1.  Jeremy finished last in the bike thing with an 8th grade boy and a 7th grade boy (not to mention our own two boys that he pulled the whole way).  it took them 4.5 hours to finish the course, but they finished, and Jeremy offered them one of the best gifts ever in hanging in there with them.  He is a champ.  I love him.  and 2.  We had a fall festival at St. Paul on Sunday night.  We saw Mrs. Ford, who told us that the kids wanted to pray for a kid who had been missing from class.  They said he was sick.  Mrs. Ford told them he wasn't sick, just taking a break from class.  Isaac said, "well, we can still pray for him even if he isn't sick."  I love him too!

I have to go get into car pool line.  I want to be more disciplined here in this space.  MY space for remembering, which helps me see God's faithfulness.  Surely I will be back before next year!

happy birthday (january 23rd!) to our IZ!

I found this letter tonight and I just didn't want it to get lost.  So, here it is, Isaac!  Happy Late Birthday to my 5 year old!

January 22, 2013

Dear Isaac,

Tomorrow you turn 5.  I can’t even believe it.  In so many ways it seems like you have been a part of my life forever, and yet these 5 years have gone by so fast.  It seems like only yesterday that I met you.  I’ve done a terrible job documenting the gifts and the challenges of your preschool years, which is certainly evidenced in the fact that I can’t even find your journal tonight.   Even so, tomorrow feels like a huge milestone for you, and so maybe one day when your journal turns up, I can paste this note in there right along side the last one I wrote, probably years ago.

We had a pirate party for you last Saturday.  It was so fun!  All of your friends came (actually, you wanted to invite everyone you know because your heart is so big and your list of friends is so long—I should probably say that everyone we invited showed up in pirate attire, ready for an adventure—ready to honor you!).  I loved that party for you because it celebrated so much of who you are and what you like to do as you turn 5.  It felt a little like stepping into something more than I could have expected, and maybe even more than I would know to dream for a five year old’s party, and I feel like the same is true of the gift of being your mom.  I love who you are, Isaac.  God has given us in you a boy who cares about other people, who is aware of others, who wants to be compassionate, who has a wild and wonderful imagination, who longs to obey and wants to please, who is curious, who loves his brother (and sometimes his sister, though I will admit that she often makes that a tall task for you), and who longs to learn and play.  As I look at pictures of you this past year, I can see that this is the year that you became a boy.  You aren’t a baby anymore.  Though you will always be MY baby, you are growing up into a person I am so very proud to know, to love, and to call my son.  This year you fell in love with Mother’s Day Out, telling me again and again that school is good for you and sharing with me stories of your adventures on the playground and in class.  You told me last spring on the way home one day, “Mama, I think I have lots of friends!”  and though I cried for a very different reason on your first day of Mother’s Day Out, I cried grateful tears when I picked you up last May on your last day of school before summer.  You made a t-shirt with the hand prints of all of your classmates (6 boys total) and you told me that you would wear it everyday until it became “too small” and even when you couldn’t wear it you would keep it forever so that you could remember “your boys.”   This is the year we traded in our cool, rugged x-terra for a mini-van, which holds all of us (even the dogs!) nicely, and it is especially wonderful that you are now big enough for a booster seat!  You got one for Christmas and you are so excited about buckling yourself in now!  You took swimming lessons this year, and after the first few days you really got the hang of it.  I love watching you explore life underwater and grow more and more confident as a swimmer.  How cool that you began the summer in floaties, and after swimming lessons you didn’t need them at all!  You thrived in gymnastics this year, becoming stronger and more confident there too.  I love that you are aware of what you are good at in the gym, and that you also know what is hard for you and where you can improve.  You tested into a preschool program for gifted children this spring too.  Your IQ is really high, which does not surprise us, and we pray that we will have you in just the right environments to encourage the growth of your really bright mind.  Right now you go once each week to a program called Encore (we call it Mr. Price school) where you learn all kinds of things.  I’ll never forget you hopping in the car one afternoon and saying to me, “Mom, do you know how birds communicate?  Communicate means how they talk to each other.”  This fall you started another class at Mother’s Day Out.  You have 13 kids in your class and though it’s very different than having 5 other boys, you are thriving as a leader there too.   Everyone loves you.  I think all the girls might want to marry you.  Choose wisely!  You are, indeed, a prize!  You told me once that you think they should have a contest and whoever did the” best tricks like forward rolls and stuff” would be the one you would marry.  Your teachers chose you to be Joseph in the Christmas program.  You were perfect for the part.  You even had to say “I see Mary looking at me!”  as a part of the play.  I pray you will continue to grow into a man who has Joseph’s humble heart.  God has given you a lot to steward well!  You also gave up your beloved “This” this year.  You worked hard to get rid of it, but just didn’t want it to go all the way away.  Starting in August you didn’t take it to school for nap time, and shortly afterwards we all got colds at our house.  Daddy said you would have to have your This boiled before you could suck on it and because my hands are full at night, I told you once that you were welcome to have it but that I wasn’t going to clean it and that it was disgusting.  You said you were done, and that was that! 

As a four year old, God gave you the gift of being a big brother again.  The last time you became a big brother, you weren’t quite two yet.  This time you were way more ready for it.  You delight in Gabe, and he certainly enjoys you.  He watches you and now that he is six months old, he likes to sing to you when you come near him.  I get excited when I think about what God will give the two of you as brothers.  And I also delight in knowing that you and Ada were picked for each other as well.  Y’all have adventures together more and more.  Mostly they end in someone crying, but I know that won’t be forever.  Plus, Ada cries a lot to get her way.  And you hurt her when she frustrates you.  I hope y’all get to claim something unique relationally one day as well.  You are a good brother, Isaac.  You do very much love your siblings and try to care for them.

You hold onto things tightly.  You don’t like us to mess up any of your “creations.”  You are already building with legos and you love to make things out of stuff in your room.  What is a treasure to you may not seem so to anyone else, but every little thing is precious to your heart, and I love that about you.  Every so often I wish I could get away with throwing things away, but you always seem to come behind me and find whatever “valuable” happy I’ve put in the trash can, pulling it out and saving it in your collections.  If it can’t be rescued, you cry hard over your loss. 

You love to swing on the swing in the front yard now, you jump on the trampoline, and of course, are the dogs’ best friend.  You eat a lot right now.  When asked if you want a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or a hotdog, you sometimes say both!  You are starting to try and like new things—like crust on your sandwiches and carrots too.

Now that you are five I know I will have to let go of you in ways that I haven’t had to before.  I dread the day you start kindergarten and you are away from our home for 35 hours each week, and yet I know it is so good for you and that you are so capable.  I also know that you are a blessing and that you have a lot of God’s heart to share with those you meet out there in your school world.  Plus, you have such an eager mind, and I get excited for what this year holds for you when I think about how you might grow.  Thankfully I have until August before I have to surrender you to school five days each week, and so I pray that I will treasure the days that I have you at home.  May they be adventures in their own way and may they help you to know God deeper. 

When I think of the last 5 years, I know God has used you to show Himself to me beyond what I knew to ask for or imagine.  Oh how I need the Lord to help me love you well.  You are a tangible reminder to me of His favor in my life, and if my delight in you pales in comparison to His delight in either one of us, then we are loved way beyond measure by the king of the universe.  What good news!  You teach me about laughter.  You teach me about second chances.  You teach me about depth and about being intentional.  You teach me about joy.  You teach me about prayer.   You remind me of how great hugs are, and about how fun it is to play.  You are a great gift, my boy.  My son.  My laughter and encouragement.  Happy 5^th Birthday, Isaac Barnes Shapiro.  May 5 be an adventure that stirs you to great things, and may the Lord be close every minute of every day, protecting you, calling you by name, preparing purpose in and for you, and bringing you comfort. 

You are such a huge piece of my heart.

Love you forever,

Mommy

Gaberade

Dear Gabe,
You are getting so big, little guy!  I catch myself watching you as you explore and I can't help but wonder what happened to my baby!  You are such a fun kid to have around.  You are an incredibly quick crawler.  I can't keep up with you.  You have several different methods for crawling, my favorite one being the one where you sit up and scoot yourself forward.  It's hilarious.  I hope you don't abandon it completely when you become a more confident walker.  You might.  And I will get over it.  I guess.  You took you first steps on September 8th, 2013 at the ripe old age of 14 months.  We were in the living room and you walked from Daddy to me (but you were really after a balloon that was right beside me!).  You didn't do much walking at all the rest of the week, and then you walked again the next Sunday at church during the 5:30 worship service.  I think you strung about 7 or so steps together at a time, and I loved watching you learn in a place that is so dear to my heart.  When you weren't walking, you were pushing your little matchbox car around on the concrete floor.  I hope you will still zoom cars around when you are on your feet all the time and not your knees!  You took off at McDonald's last Friday night, September 28th, and I am pretty sure you are starting now to prefer walking to crawling.  It is so fun to watch you go.  It's a complicated thing to learn, and you are rocking it!

You have 4 awesome teeth and are working on 4 more.  You love to play cars and to send marbles down the marble track.  You shake your hands with excitement as you watch the balls roll! You also love to throw the ball to the dog.  These are many of Isaac's first joys, and it is fun to watch y'all love these things together.  One of my favorite things right now is seeing you light up when we pick Isaac up from school.  You freak out with excitement.  It is so wonderful Isaac's teacher even wrote me a note about it!  You like to wave a lot.  As big kids at school walk by in the afternoon, you love to wave to them as they pass.  You also love hot dogs and shredded cheese and dried apples.  You are finally starting to sleep at night and it is amazing!  Keep up the good work.  Geez, it has been a long time coming!  You crawl up and even down (though we don't ever let you on purpose) the stairs with a lot of ease, and you love to sit in my sink when I get ready in the morning and play with any available toothbrushes.  You are our first toddler to pull books off the shelves, tupperware out of drawers, chemicals from cabinets--you are our 3rd and yet 1st reason to baby proof.  You say "Mama" a lot now, and you also know what the squirrels and the dogs say.  You try to say Nala and Stella and you do a pretty good job of both!  I am hoping that you and I can read some books while the big kids are in school--the kind of books that teach you words.  So far, our attempts have been interesting.  You'd rather be on the go than sitting still in my lap (which is funny because you are also my best cuddler).

I love you, Gabe.  You just couldn't be cuter.
Going to bed.  Please let me sleep all night!
Mama

Kindergarten so far..

Dear Isaac,
I have been meaning to capture for you some snapshots of your first few weeks of Kindergarten.  Though i haven't written them down yet, I have been holding them in a very small section of my brain for long enough, and because I fear that if I don't purge them soon they will be gone forever, I am taking a few minutes tonight to remember for you the nuggets of awesome that you have shared with me so far.

Many mamas gave me advice about how to step into these Kindergarden days.  I even went to a panel discussion to hear some different perspectives on how to navigate this first year well.  I came away with a lot of notes:  take the dog to hook up line, don't ask questions, give him space, bring a snack, let him sleep in his clothes....the list goes on.  You have yet again taught me way more in these weeks that I could ever learn in a panel discussion.  You hop in the car with boundless energy after school.  The first week of school was a four day week of half-days.  You knew you didn't have school on Friday, but after your taste of school on your very first day, you hopped in the car and said, "Mama, I just LOVE school.  Do you think I could go to school on Friday?"  When I said no, you said, "Well how about Saturday and Sunday?"  It was then that I finally let myself cry, mostly because my heart was so full that I would have the gift of sharing you into an experience that you were drawn to and excited about.  In your sweet and powerful words, I felt God's mercy in my Mama heart and His confirmation of our prayers for your school journey for this year.  I am so thankful you like it!  That continues to be the case!  Wow.

You also tend to tell me exactly what you did in PE everyday.  It's your favorite class.  You like the games and you like to sing the songs that they play while you all do your thing.  It really makes me laugh that you try to sing "Can't Touch This" (blast from MY past, MC Hammer)  but tend to get the words wrong (I do that all the time, with most every song I try to sing).  After you talk about PE, you ask me to ask you questions, and whatever I ask jogs your memory to tell me more.  I hang on every word.

The third day of school you had sad news when you got in the van.  It was the first day that you had anything negative to share.  You told me that you had a hard time on the playground.  You said that William was on the climbing wall and that you walked up to the wall to climb too.  He told you, "No!  You can't play here!  Get off!" and I asked you frantically, "What did you do?" my heart all but ready to crucify young William for treating you that way.  You told me, "Mama, I said, 'Well, I think it's okay for anybody to play here' and then I walked away."  Then you told me this, "I think William said that to me because he doesn't really know me yet.  Probably if he knew me, he would like to play with me."  I stand amazed by your wisdom, little man, and I learn so much from it.  I also learned that third day of your Kindergarden experience that I am slow to forgive when people are unkind to my children, and I really want the posture of my heart to reflect Christ back to you, rather than anger.  Christ forgives.  You did too.  I am thankful.

Later that same week you told me after school one day that you made a new friend on the playground.  You said that you noticed that Emma didn't have anyone to play with so you asked her if she would be your best friend.  She told you no, that she didn't want to be your best friend, but she did say that she would be your friend and that she would like to play with you.  As you were about to go play, you noticed that Shepherd wasn't playing with anyone, so you asked if he would like to play with you and Emma.  Then you told me, "Mama, things got complicated!"  Shepherd did want to play, but Emma said she didn't want to play with you if you were going to play with Shepherd!  Yikes!  Again, I said with anticipation, "What did you do?'  You told me that Shepherd walked away, so you just played with Emma.  I am so glad your heart longs to see those who might need a friend.  May God bless this in you, Isaac, for it is a rare and very beautiful gift.

Mrs. Brown is your teacher.  She loves you and is great at teaching Kindergarten.  Every morning when you get to school, you pick a number from a bag.  That is your number for the day and is representative of your place in line.  Your number the first day of school was 14.  The second day it was 15.  The third day it was 15.  The fourth day it was 15 again.  The first week of school, you towed the back of the line well, and I began to wonder if you must be the last one in the classroom everyday (we live so close to school that we tend to be last minute people).  Maybe kids peek at their numbers and put them back for a better position?  Regardless, you don't mind the back of the line, and you LOVE having me guess who had each number everyday.  The following Monday, you pulled 14 out of the bag.  William pulled 15.  You said you turned to him and said, "William, don't you worry.  It's going to be OKAY.  The first shall be last and the last shall be first!"

My other memory of your first week of school is of making you chocolate chip cookies to take with you for dessert.  We don't normally have homemade ones, so I thought it was a huge treat to put one in your lunch the first day.  The cookie came home on Monday, home on Tuesday, and then by Wednesday when you still had not eaten it, I was tempted to eat it myself.  You told me that you can't eat dessert until you finish your whole lunch!  You also said you are not able to talk to your shoulder buddies at lunch because you don't have time to eat if you do!

You have great respect for the rules, buddy.  And you love what you are learning.  You can read some words now!  "have, little, i, am...."  It is so fun to watch you grow, and I hope that you will enjoy learning always, not for the sake of getting it right or doing a good job, but because God gave you a great mind and generous curiosity.

You are off to a good start.  I am finally able to admit to myself that I am so sad that you are gone during the day.  It is hard for me, but I am so glad that my "grieving" isn't complicated by any sort of negative experience on your end.  You go eagerly, pushing us all out the door to a new day.  Your spirit is such a gift, Isaac Barnes.  What a gift you are!  Happy Kindergarden year!  So far, you are loving it!

Love you,
Mama

what she prays for...

I just got to tuck Ada into bed.  It's a Sunday night, so I have Jeremy's help and because we had dinner at Nana and Papa T's AND skipped a bath, I feel like I got to enjoy the kids rather than rush them through the evening madness routine.  I crawled in beside Ada, who is snuggled in her "new" elephant consignment sale PJs under the very thin pink gingham blanket that DD made her when she was born.  Her humidifier is blowing steam towards her to help her breathe easier through her "clogged up" nose, and her room smells of RuRu, who visited this week in honor of the birth of our new little cousin, Charlie.  RuRu slept with Ada a couple of nights, and as I snuggled in beside her, sandwiched between the wall and my wild, wonderful girl blessing, she sat up and peered over me, as if to make sure I wasn't squashing something important.  She said, "oh good.  you aren't laying on the RuRu smell."  I asked her where that was so I could make sure not to squish it, and she told me with a vague wave of her small hands, "It's right about there."  I laughed really hard, mostly because I, too, smell the RuRu smell when I am in her room right now.  Nothing gets past Ada.

Tonight as I was praying for her, I prayed (among other things) that she would know Jesus as she grows.  She stopped me and said, "Mom, I already know Him.  We should pray for someone else."  I asked her if we should pray for Charlie, who was born on Wednesday.  She said yes!  And for all of the Moms who just had babies and can't swim!!

So, Jesus, please be with all the new babies and all those Mama's out there who can't swim because they have had a c-section with a fishing pole (which is how Ada tells the story of your virgin birth).  I am sure they are all anxious to get back in the pool.  And please continue use whatever bad memories my child has of her 2nd summer, rotten only because her mama had a baby and couldn't get in the water.  It was just enough suffering to make her prayerful, for whatever reason.  

Kindergarten

Dear Isaac,
Not so long ago, I held you for the very first time.  I was so tired from laboring for so long and then so drugged up from my c-section, that I remember asking the nurse to please take you because I was afraid I would drop you.  Since that day (and even before), you have held the very special place in my heart that only you can hold.  You, the boy who made me a mommy, are a delight!  I can't even believe what a gift it is to know you and spend time with you and watch you grow.  You amaze me.  You are adorable, you are smart, you are kind.  You love discovering.  You love to play with the dogs, to play with your matchbox cars, to do anything with Daddy, to hunt for bugs, to throw rocks in the creek, to make up games, to pump your legs and make the swing go high (but not too high).  You ask questions about God, you love your brother and like to find things to do to entertain him, and you get excited about going to school.  As I snuggled up with you the last day of Mother's Day Out, I celebrated that you had finished two whole years of school (two days a week), and you burst into tears.  You said, "Mana, when am I going to see my friends again?"

It delights my heart that you love people.  My prayer for you is not only that God would decorate your life with people, but that he would also give you a few really close friends to walk with on this crazy journey into His best for you.  Because I think you shine when you are with people, Daddy and I know that school will be a good place for you, and yet at the same time, I WILL MISS YOU SO MUCH!!  You are my partner these days--my helper, my number one!  You laugh at funny things with me and you make all things fun.  I am excited about what Kindergarten will be for you.  Daddy and I have prayed about it so much, and we are thrilled that you get to spend your first year of full-time school at St. Paul.  They will love you so well there, and Isaac, you are so lovable.

You seem excited about going.  We've been to Storytime in Mrs. Brown's room, and RuRu took you to Open House to see your cubby and all of the centers in your classroom.  Monday you have a half-day, and the same is true for the rest of the week.  I am so glad!  That is probably more a gift to me than to you even, but I think a soft start into this whole idea of surrendering you to someone else's care for the day EVERYday is really good.

Sending you to Kindergarten reminds me like nothing we've done before that you are not mine.  You are the Lord's, and He was gracious enough to set you in our family to love and to cherish and to cheer for as you grow.  May you be a light for Him, Isaac!  You are so good at making other people feel special, about being aware of others in your room, about remembering the details about what is going on in people's lives, about celebrating birthdays...  and you are so smart too.  I know you are anxious about holding your pencil the right way.  Don't you worry--it will come!  I hope the Lord will prompt you to ask for help when you need it, to share your joy with others, to make others feel important, and to be kind.  I also hope you love what you are learning at school.  Your brain amazes me.  You remember so much and can do really complicated math already.  You say all the time that you would like to be a car builder when you grow up.  May Kindergarten be a step in that direction...or toward God's dreams for who you might be as a man after His own heart.  We pray that you know Him one day, as well as you can on this side of heaven, and we hope that this Kindergarten year will be a special step in that direction, as well as a sweet educational foundation.

You are my delight.  I can't even tell you with my words how much you mean to me.  People used to tell me your little years would go by fast--because you cried at me for the first six months of your life, I didn't believe them.  I do now, however, and though I am so excited for you, I am sad for those of us who will miss you at home.  Your preschool years have been awesome!!  Thanks for making my heart more like His just by living in it...and in our house.

I love you, Isaac!
You are my IZ, and I am grateful.
Love,
Mama