Thanksgiving 6 years ago, Becca Grace was born: 2 lbs 0.8 oz, and 14 inches. (She now weighs 39.4lbs and is 43 inches tall.) We’re thankful for the many ways God protected her life during her premature birth, and then when she had an abdominal tumor right before she turned 3.  Happy Birthday Becca!

This year has included fun with new things: learning to ride a bike without training wheels, learning to jump rope while someone else turns it, learning to read (Becca is already halfway through Level 2 of All About Reading; we started Level 1 mid-August), and this week Becca lost her 4th tooth.

We started celebrating Becca’s birthday on November 1st with her birthday countdown calendar. Like last year, everyday held some sort of treat, whether a gift, snack, sleepover, motorcycle ride, etc. One of the treats was making paper machine creations, which was a multi-day project that we just finished this morning.

For Becca’s birthday we had Cheerios for breakfast and egg salad for lunch…no rice. After breakfast, Isaiah gave Becca the presents he bought for her. She was quite pleased to have a tape measure.

Becca requested to have a family-only party with pizza. We had Becca’s traditional panda cake and played pin the nose on the panda.

It was a full day, week, and month of birthday activities and this Mommy is ready for bed!

As I reflect on Becca’s birthday it doesn’t seem like I’ve been a mommy for 6 years. I make a lot of mistakes and am constantly growing in my parenting. I need God’s help every day as I parent our little ones and am so thankful for the grace He constantly gives. One of the things I think about a lot is parenting for the future. Right now I’m parenting Becca to be a faithful follower of Christ when she leaves the home and parenting her for the relationship I desire with her when she leaves our home.

Tomorrow we celebrate Thanksgiving with many of the missionaries in the area. So it’s another day of celebrating. Then we get ready for our Kachok guests Sunday evening through Wednesday morning.