14 Years Deserves a Blog Post

I would give some clever excuse and justifiable reason why my last post was in October. eek. But I won’t. My friend Kathy said it here much better than I can. Feel free to read her, I mean our, reasoning.

But the 14th birthday of my firstborn is definitely worth sharing and posting a picture or two about!

Ema is counting down to when she gets to sit in the birthday chair, 6 more days!

Leah turned 14 today and some days I can hardly believe it. She already has it figured out how old she will be when we go home on our first furlough and how old she will be when we return and how many years left until she graduates and on and on.
Mostly I prefer not to think too much about that right now, just enjoy the time right now with her.
I try to convince her not to rush through her time as a child only marking time until she is ‘older’, that these years are precious, and once she moves to the land of adulthood, she will wish she had kiddo-years back. But the mind of a teenager often thinks they cannot grow up quick enough, and we know better with our hindsight, that yes indeed, it is quick and it is quick enough.
But for now, she is still my little girl, although she measures almost daily to see if she has finally grown taller than me. I still have just a smidgen on her.
Leah, we love you, and are so thankful that the Lord gave you to us as our first-born and has blessed us with 14 years so far with you.

She woke to her traditional birthday chair and fun presents and her choice of breakfast.
Biscuits and gravy.

If there is a breakfast that is more American and un-Thai than that, I cannot think of what it would be. The biscuits and gravy were a hit with everyone, but only because it has been so long since they had them made properly that no one remembers what it is supposed to taste like. hahaha.
I am not a gravy-maker, I try, but it is not my specialty. Greg’s mom, now she can make gravy!

Happy Birthday Leah! We love you very much!