Three Cheers!

Happy Birthday, Carter Stephen!

You are so very special to us. Our prayer is that you have a wonderful year ahead of you. We are so grateful to be the chosen parents for you. What a delight you are. You continue to be true to your easy-going and predictable nature. You are such a pleasure to be around. You are very polite and cautious of people's feelings. You learn quickly. You love the outdoors.

You're silly!

You are growing taller and getting so very thin and boyish. You even smell like a dirty boy by the end of the day.

We love it!

You are very focused. Very focused, it's amazing to see.

(This is your focusing face, he he:)

Thank you for giving us a terrifically-two year!

We're looking forward to seeing what three brings.

Love, Mommy, Daddy, and Everett

Photo of the Week

As a mother, or perhaps just as a woman getting older, I am opening my eyes daily to the purpose and importance of true friends. It's so natural as a child to establish trust and purpose in a relationship, but as a child grows and potentially gets "jaded" in such relationships, they may lose a friend or many on the path of life. I am so grateful to have such strong, thick, and deeply planted friends.

Through the weekend, I was putting my budding photography to work--this time, without the lens. In the middle of moments--through a laugh, a hug, or a joke, I snapped mental pictures of our moments. Not only does it add to the extensive and lifelong scrapbook that we have together, I get to teach my children to do the same, with their deeply rooted friends. It's an amazing cycle, and I wish it on everyone. But at the moment--I'm enjoying the blessing of their trueness and our gift of eternal friendship.

Yesterday I had to run off for a while. I saw this setting and was overwhelmed at the placement of this in my week. The trees stand so tall and close, as a family. They shed their bark, hiding nothing. They chat as the wind moves their limbs together, they plant new trees. The sun rises and sets in their glory. They are eternal friends.

"As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend."

(Proverbs 27:17)