Her 10th Birthday: a love letter to my sweet girl

TEN Years is…

120 months

3,650 days

87,600 hours

5,256,000 minutes

315,360,000 seconds

An infinite amount of love.

Ten Things We Love About Laylah

1. How you love to serve & help others.
2. Your giggles
3. All of your “wouldn’t it be cool if…” ideas
4. Your love of baking/cooking & how you show love to others through that.
5. Your love for your brothers.
6. You could always make room for one more cat. (a.k.a. crazy cat lady!)
7. How you still let us snuggle with you & don’t mind us calling you our baby.
8. That you never meet a stranger. At one point I had to stop taking you to e grocery store with me because my 30 min trips would last over an hour because you had to stop and talk to everyone. That’s good, sweet girl, God will use that to bring joy to those struggling.
9. Your love of reading – I admire that about you.
10. The compassion that you show to those around you.

Laylah, these 10 things are not even a drop in all of the waters of the world of how much we love you! Sweet girl, we know that this year has been really different but you have met each challenge & change by trying your hardest to see the bright side. You transitioned back to homeschool with great ease. Your Daddy & I have been brought to joyous tears in seeing your spark return!

You take such joy in making breakfast for the family & ensuring that Mommy always has fresh coffee to start the day. We lovingly joke about Mommy’s rule – No talkie before coffee – but it makes me feel so loved that you care that much & want to talk with me. It makes me hopeful & excited about the possibilities of the future – the many coffee dates with deep and meaningful conversations. Ten years ago I was so scared to be raising a daughter, but God knew exactly what I needed and what I deeply longed for even before I discovered it. He’s so good like that.

He made you so much like me…but praise God He gave you your daddy’s temperament. You may not be aware just yet, but you’ve been such a refining force of the Lord in my life. Who I am today is not who I once was by the grace of the Holy Spirit at work in my life through the many, many sanctifying moments of motherhood. Many of those moments were sanctifying and hard for us both, but I will forever gladly rejoice in that. You, precious daughter, are loved and treasured not for what you do or bring to this family, but simply because you are you.

My prayer for you, sweet Laylah, is that as things continue to change you will cling to Jesus and trust in His unchanging & steadfast faithfulness. Amen.

With all my love,

Mommy