Gracia

I am woefully behind on posting! Seems like life continues to thunder by at outrageous speeds these days...this last week we celebrated two birthdays in the family! Miguel's birthday was last Saturday, the 16th (sorry, no pictures, it was a rather low-key event! I made lasagna and pound cake and we watched several episodes of Andy Griffith with the kids). Gracia's birthday was a bigger event on Tuesday.

On Monday, I baked cupcakes and the birthday cake for the next day. But then I realized that we should probably celebrate as a family on Monday night since Micah's baseball practice on Tuesday would interfere with supper...so I scrambled to wrap her presents and get the cake frosted before supper. She was pleased with her presents, mostly things sent in a package from some friends back home...that night, Gracia asked me to tuck her in as usual and we read the story of Esther from her little picture Bible. Afterwards, we talked about the story of Jesus healing the ten lepers, which got us onto the topic of leprosy, sickness, death, and then heaven/hell. As we talked, I realized that Gracia was being unusually vocal about spiritual things-it's not that she hasn't been interested before, just not very vocal about it. We talked about Jesus dying on the cross for our sins and then I asked her if she wanted to pray and ask Jesus into her heart...and she did! What a precious moment for me to embrace her not only as a daughter, but as a sister in Christ! And it's neat that she'll be able to celebrate her spiritual birthday every year right along with her physical birthday!

Gracia at one month

Love that smile!

Celebrating six years!

Wearing one of her new dresses to school.

Handing out cupcakes at school.

Jkaile enjoyed the special attention.

Jojo and his friend James.