Yesterday was a big deal around here. My littlest girl, my last baby, turned 5.

I don’t throw big birthday parties 4 times a year for 4 children. It’s neither in the budget nor in line with me holding on to my last bits of sanity. Around here you get a big party for milestone birthdays like your fifth. You can have whatever theme  you want, invite all of your friends & family & whoop it up a little as you leave babyhood behind.

This party was extra celebratory. Anyone who knows my Grace knows that me letting her live to 5 is reason enough to celebrate! HA!  She is a force of nature my girl. She posesses boundless energy, a will of steel, and the vocabulary and thoughts of a much older child. She has been through a lot in her short little life and I thought that her day should be extra special. It was. She was up most of the night before, restless with excitememt & ooohhhing & ahhhhing over the cake hubby and I were making for her. She was thrilled over the decorations I had strung up and kept saying to me, “It’s to much! I don’t deserve all this!”  But you do Grace, you deserved that effort and much much more.

When Grace was 2 I posted a long post about our journey together & how difficult it had been. Some people thought I had been to honest and that maybe I shouldn’t have shared so much but I did and I ended my post with this. It was true then & even more true today so it is worth repeating.

 I have always felt that our children come to us to teach us things. To heal our own childhoods. To help us grow up. Grace has taught me more than I could have imagined & I will be forever grateful to her for that.  More than any other, she has taught me about being grateful, about unconditional love, about patience, honesty, & about being humble.
Happy Birthday to my girl. My Grace. My teacher.