Ruth's Rambles...: My Youngest is Six

Although I am well into my forties and edging closer every day to the next decade, and although I have high school acquaintances with children in their twenties, I still somehow find it astounding that my youngest child is now six! What a miracle these kids are...every one of them!

Lizzie is now just a few weeks past the age that Seth was when they joined our family over two years ago...and somehow that's astounding too.

Lizzie is an amazing little girl and I feel so blessed by her presence in our family. Though stubborn and highly dramatic, she is blessed with a personality that is naturally joyful, thankful, loving, compassionate, and generous. It is easy to see her giftedness in her ability to relate to other people, even at this tender age. She draws people to herself with charisma and charm, and doesn't discriminate amongst the people that she showers with these traits. She loves to be on people's laps or to be carried by them - she is rarely without a small troupe of people willing and offering to hold her or carry her around. When her big cousins were in town recently and we went for a long walk through the park with them, I don't think her feet touched the ground for more than a minute or two of the hours we spent there with them; she loved towering over everyone else while being carried on the shoulders of her 6'3" and 6'4" tall cousins!

To me Lizzie personifies the simplicity of a child's faith in God. She is quick to believe, quick to point out the workings of God, and appreciative of how God created such detailed and amazing things of beauty all around her. She doesn't hold back on her willingness to believe, and that's a beautiful thing...I hope it never changes.

Lizzie is tender and forgiving of her brothers, never holding a grudge, even when they don't treat her with the same consideration. Just the other day, for example, after she'd had a rather nasty little tiff wtih her brothers, she was quick to want to make up with them and so asked me if she could take a small container of candies she'd been given for her birthday and divide it up between herself and her brothers so that they could share in the luxury of the sweets along with her. She happily offers up the last morsels of her favourite foods to others in the family, waits for the rest of us to be served up a meal before she begins to eat herself just because she wants to share the experience with everyone she loves, and would just as happily cheer for a brother or a friend who beat her at something as she would be delighted for herself if she won at whatever it was.

She astounds me every day, my little Bean. Despite the trauma of her earlier life, despite the effect it has on her still, her heart has remained soft and open, and she is beginning to show signs that she is acquiring mixed feelings - ie. a developmental milestone that is the ability to hold two thoughts at the same time. Six is a common age for kids to start to experience mixed feelings, but mostly this type of mix is delayed in children who have a background of trauma or high sensitivity. A great example of her development is her expression this weekend that "I didn't like that Seth slapped my arm because it hurt me, but on the other hand it was good that he killed that mosquito." She similarly shows maturity beyond her years when expressing mixed feelings about really big/deep emotions; for example being able in the same breath to tell me how sad it is that she could not live in Ethiopia with her first father but, on the other hand, how happy she is that she is with her Daddy and me.

She's certainly a challenge to parent in some ways because of the strength of her opinions and her ready dramatics, and I have a feeling that she is going to be quite something to parent about six or seven years from now. But even with all of this included, this is a kid who is a gift to parent because of the effervescence of her personality. I could not love this daughter of mine any more than I do...my heart is full for her, full of her.

Happy birthday, my beautiful-on-the-inside-and-on-the-outside little daughter, and may God keep you and bless you all the days of your life. We love you so much Lizzie!

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Celebrating her birthday with girlfriends

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Eating one of her favourite foods: Ribs! Note the rib sticking out of her mouth...she cleans them off entirely!

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A special dish of ice cream and gummy worms, along with a sparkler candle!

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Overjoyed!

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The next night we went out for a family dinner at Lizzie's favourite restaurant: Mongos. I kept trying to take a self portrait of myself with Lizzie, and the boys kept popping in. So here we four are!

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After dinner, back to Grandpa and Grandma's house to open gifts and eat cake (again).

I love this picture because it shows Lizzie's delight at her gift from Seth. For months, Seth has been planning to give Lizzie his skateboard...even though he still loves it. I don't know who was more thrilled about the gift: Seth to give it; or Lizzie to receive it!