Happy Birthday AA!

Today is our oldest kiddo's birthday! I can't believe she is seven years old! It seems like it has gone so fast but at the same time there has been a lot of life lived in those seven years!

She is growing to be such a charming young lady. Her heart for her sister and brother amaze me, she is learning to be a great leader, she is making good choices, and she has a heart for the Lord!

We have struggled every year with what to buy her for her birthday for two reasons...one being she has anything she ever needs and two being her birthday is right after Christmas. We had decided last year that it would be the last time that she would receive presents at her birthday party. Instead, she would collect money for a charity or collect toys for kids in need! This has really fit in with our whole theme of Christmas, which was "The only things that you really keep are the things that you give away." Like I mentioned in My Christmas Top 5, we did many things as a family to help out others who are less fortunate than us. While doing some research in the internet AA and TW came across a site http://www.compassion.com/ it is a charity that "releases children from poverty in Jesus' name." AA and TW watched several videos on the site and AA got very interested in the cause. So, when it was time to pick a charity to collect money for, it was no surprise that this was her pick. On her invitations, made by Gama, we requested no gifts and instead explained that she would be collecting money for Compassion. She also decided that one of her gifts from us would be sponsoring a child monthly from the website. It should be a neat experience for her. She will get pictures from the child and she will be able to write back and forth with the child. It has been a whole new educational process for us as we teach her about poverty and AIDS. We did get her a couple of other things as well, but not nearly as much as she usually gets! When she walked in the door from school and saw the two presents on the table she asked who they were for and AK told her that they were for her for her birthday. AA simply stated, "Oh I didn't need that. But, thank you!" Uhhhh, melted my heart. In a world where we fight materialism daily and the media telling us that we "need" this or that to make us happy I was so pleased to hear those words come out of her mouth!

We try, daily, to teach our kiddos to live for God and to do his will and work in this world. One thing is for sure, His will is not always the popular thing but it is ALWAYS the right thing! To see this reflected in her heart, even it was just for a moment, was heartwarming to me!