A Big Day

Today was a pretty big deal for Ca. She was, thankfully, excited to go to school again. I prayed for the kids' day out loud in the car on the way to school this morning, and was surprised to glance back and see that she had closed her eyes.

After school she showed me how her tooth was really loose, and told me that she had visited the nurse to swish out her mouth when it had been bloody. She pulled her first American tooth (with coaching and encouragement by I) before dinner.

WOW! A Tooth!

 

Dinner was late and began haphazardly. Halfway through, S commented in English that we hadn't prayed, and Ca closed her eyes and reached for our hands. And told us that she wanted to pray. On Mondays it's S's turn to pray for dinner, but he graciously shared. In the past, Ca has wanted to be the one talking during prayer, but didn't know what to say, so repeated after me. Tonight, Ca independently told God that she was excited about her tooth, and that she loves Daddy, Mama, Co, I, S and herself. "Maymen" We were rather floored. Then S had his turn, and thanked God for the food, and told Him that he didn't really feel like praying, but thanks even so.

 

This felt enormous to me (and B too). We love that at least one of our kids is truly learning that our Heavenly Father wants to hear from us no matter our mood - He wants us to come to Him in joy, sorrow, anger, confusion, remorse, delight, need... Father, may we each learn more and more the joys and benefits of coming to you in the midst of all the varied ways we feel...

After dinner Ca read a book about butterflies to us. The text was "I am [color]" on each page -with a photo of a butterfly of that color. This book is a great book for beginning readers who know English, as it helps them feel a sense of confidence in their reading. I was pretty discouraged for Ca, because, well, she doesn't know English, and doesn't know her colors. So most of the book was pretty much a loss for her...except purple. My baby knows PURPLE! She read us that page over and over again, and was so excited that she knew purple.  It was sweet, and we shared her enthusiasm.

As I was lying in bed with her, Ca pointed to and named (in English) her eyes, her nose, her head, her ears, and then pointed to her mouth and said, "I don't know." I was surprised at how many body parts she knew already, and that she would ask to know more. In the dark, I proceeded to touch and name her mouth, forehead, hair, and tongue (which is tricky, because it's very close to Ca's word for 'hurt'). Don't worry, I didn't actually touch her tongue... 

Then as we were settling in for sleep, she told me to pray. I'm still fairly convinced that she doesn't understand what's going on, but am greatly encouraged that she recognizes praying as something we do - a part of the structure of our day. So I thanked God for how Ca is learning so much so quickly and asked that He would help us each understand more of who He is and how He loves us. 

Thank you to all of you who are praying and caring for and about our family. We understand more of who God is and how much He loves us through your caring and your prayers in this season of our lives.

Some pictures from our weekend:

This pretty much sums it up. Love this photo & my fun and fabulous kids!

R-L: television, upside-down man, last-minute bumblebee-turned-cow, rodeo clown (don't know what a rodeo clown is? look it up!)