Oh good gracious. I sat down to start writing and immediately tears filled my eyes…. WHY am I like this? I truly can’t even believe how sentimental I am even in the midst of celebrating things changing. I just can’t believe we are really here: Dorothy Grace! You are heading to kinder and well, I am still pinching myself that you are ours. I still haven’t gotten over the miracle of your life - and I’m guessing this means I absolutely never will - but how is this little teeny tiny baby now ready to go to school? This is all just so fast.
When you were little we have the funniest memory of you sitting at the dinner table hearing all of us talk and you wanted to be part of the conversation. You lifted up your hands to get our attention and exclaimed: “Moment, Moment, Moment”… and then you kept repeating yourself over and over because we were hysterically laughing. We still reference this as a family all of the time because here you were just trying to be in the mix, bigger than you were and with a lot to say. Well baby girl, this is your moment.
As I think about you going to kindergarten, there are so many things that have driven me absolutely crazy that I already am positive I will miss. Seeing as you’ve really not had a playmate for most of your life, your creativity knows NO bounds and well…. It drives me nuts. The amount of masterpieces you have made from trash, nail polish that is smeared on our carpets and playroom sofa, slime residue that is on every surface you have touched, treasures stored in the most random of places, your room that, at all times, looks like you are a doomsday prepped… you creativity is well, creative. Every single day I feel like I follow you around undoing a lot of the messes you thrive in - and honestly, I bet I miss it.
You don’t talk. You are an over-communicator, for sure, but most of your words are in song. You sing everyday and all day long to yourself, you ask and answer questions in song, you constantly rhyme and make up cheesy phrases. I could ask you what you want for breakfast and you would answer something like: “I want cereal to the bereal and it smells like shereal.” And then you would repeat it with a melody behind it over and over. Truly, you talk/sing like this 90% of the time and I’m so sad because I know we will look back on this as a memory, to some extent. I wish teachers in a classical school would embrace musical numbers as answers to simple math questions, but I am going to assume they would not appreciate that and so some level of this part of you will change. I am praying that it lasts forever and you just know the safe places to keep singing…. Drama class and the choir will be waiting for you.
You know exactly who you are - you have been confidently marching to the beat of your own drum for a long time. I think a lot of this has to do with you being our third kid, some about how old your siblings are and you rising to their occasion, but mostly I just think this is who God made you to be in every way.
Socks? No, thank you.
Hairbow? Ya, I’m going to take that out.
This adorable new dress I just got for you? Sorry, it’s itchy and I’d rather wear non-matching clothes with sparkle high heels or cowboy boots.
Can you sit and watch Eleanor or Tripp’s game with us? Sorry, the crowd needs me. I am going to do cartwheels and make-up cheers on the sidelines in front of the stands.
Soccer with your friends? Um, I hate that game.
Dance class? Uh, the worst.
How about this lovely queen bed we got you for your room? Ya, I would rather make a pallet under the kitchen island and sleep like a vagabond for weeks, thank you.
Let’s meet all the princesses at Disneyworld? I’ll pass, you can take their picture.
Want a fairy god-mother to transform you into a princess? Go ahead and cancel that appointment, I am NOT doing that.
Would you like to come meet this new friend? Meow.
I simply cannot wait for the stories that will come from the classroom, or the sports teams, or the play dates you will have - you just know what you want and it is so freaking adorable and endearing. I am praying that as you grow and mature, that this part of you will be pruned and grow in the most beautiful of ways. Confidently growing closer to WHO has created and fashioned you, I pray that you would know the Lord and allow Him to transform you all while keeping true to this precious part of your personality.
Dorothy - “gift of God” - sister, you are. You are the biggest GIFT to our entire family that we will never, ever get over. For years we all prayed for you, dreamed you would join us, and pleaded that the Lord’s kindness would shine upon us… and, here you are. Six years of celebrating a life that we know was fashioned and formed by a perfect creator that is above all science… He gave you to our family as a gift. Now, as you head into school I pray that the way you love, include, excite and participate is a gift to your teachers, your classmates and your friends. I pray that you would be an addition that brings joy to the room. I pray that as you grow, you would give of yourself over and over being humble, selfless and other-people focused.
Psalm 40:1 - I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry.Grace - “unmerited favor” - like I said, you are a gift. Even more so, a gift that we didn’t earn… science and doctors told us there was nothing they, or we, could do to have another biological child. And yet, here you are. That is nothing but grace upon grace - may you come to know that precious grace at a young age and be an agent of extending it to others. All that we are and all that we have comes from the Lord - and the sooner you learn and live by that, the freer you become. The easier it is to apologize. The easier it becomes to forgive. The more natural it becomes to welcome, include and widen your heart to others. I pray that this precious grace follows you in tangible ways throughout your school years and that you would be known as someone with a whole lot of truth to her, but wrapped in grace. I pray that as you come to know the Lord, that you would be an agent of sharing His grace with others… because that is where true life is found.
Psalm 40:3 - He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord.Lynnie - “soft, beautiful and pretty” - you know what is funny? I just had to look that definition up because I had no idea what your middle name actually means. But, isn’t that just the sweetest definition - I’ll take it for you. Your curls are so soft, your eyes are so beautiful and your heart is just so pretty. I will say, however, that we did not name you Lynnie for this definition - we named you after one of our favorites. Aunt Lynnie was BJ’s - and she was wonderful. She had a lot of passion, so much heart, such tenderness for the Lord and the relationships in her life, and she was a fighter. We lost Aunt Lynnie to cancer about one year before we learned you would be joining our family, and we were devastated that you would never know her. But, you carry her… your passion, heart, tenderness and fight… so much of her legacy in your little body. As you head to school…. I pray those words over you: be passionate, lead with your heart, be wrapped in tenderness and fight for what is good, true and beautiful.
Psalm 40:5 - You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you! I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told.
Our actual baby girl… This is your “moment, moment, moment”. I cannot wait to watch you walk onto campus tomorrow high-fiving all the upper class-men like you own the place and yet sheepishly turning the corner to the kinder deck. It will be such a beautiful tension of the realities at play… you are ready, we are ready and as you start your school days we stand right here expectantly rejoicing for all the lies ahead. Go get em, DGLR. We love you so much you little poop.
Love, mama
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