Happy 15th Birthday, Leila!

Our Dearest Leila,

Wow, it’s incredible that you are already 15, and it’s even more incredible how much you have grown and changed since you arrived here and joined our family. You have persevered through more than most, and you have grown to realize that you can do hard things and those hard things can produce incredible fruit in your own life and in those around you. Our mantra lately before you head to school has been:

Momma: “You can do?

Leila: Hard things!

Middle school is a challenging season, but you are working hard and learning so much from your incredible team of teachers. You are excelling in basketball and love game days. We really enjoy watching you play and seeing the joy on your face when you make a good play.

You continue to love rice, Asian food (especially after Japan), eggs and anything that tastes good with spice - spicy seasonings, hot sauce, hot salsa, etc. You are still my plain-Jane vanilla girl when it comes to sweets. We discovered this year that you like coffee with loads of cream and no sugar. So, Sunday mornings at church, you enjoy this once-a-week treat.

At home, you love riding around on the gator, playing basketball and running (just kidding...you despise running). Any chance you get to watch something, you want to watch Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, The Cosby Show or Star Wars. You love sitting in front of the wood stove, and you thoroughly enjoy cranking up your heated blanket at night.You love helping out with Benaiah, and I’m so grateful for that. 

While being a teenager hasn’t been without its challenges, our relationship with you has made great strides. We still mess up, and we all have to say, “I’m sorry” more than we’d like, but through the hard moments we are growing in grace. We often tell you, “correction is not rejection,” but we’ve also had to tell ourselves that “disobedience is not rejection” towards us. We are each learning to love one another better and not take our flawed human momentssso personally. Grace. It is vital.

Leila, we love you. We are thankful for you, and we’re so happy you’re our daughter.

Love,

Momma and Daddy

So glad you’re still willing to wear pigtails.

And wrestling your little brothers.

For your 15th birthday, you wanted to watch Star Wars and eat Chinese. So that’s what we did!

Playing for Aylett Country Day School Patriots.

Lady in red!

Happy New Year!

We celebrated New Years Eve with almost 100 friends including some old friends from church and school and some new friends from The Fix Ministry. The kids ran wild on the farm while the adults conversed by the outdoor fire and in the toasty house. We are so thankful to have the space to be able to have these events. This is our 11th New Years gathering! With a potluck dinner and fireworks, sparklers and pop its from SC, we all had a great time, only stamped out 1 small fire and needed just a few bandaids. Geoff invited friends to share how Hod has worked in their lives in 2019 before blessing the food, and we have great thanks for the transformation of lives in the room through His great grace and mercy. Wow! 

We had a small New Years Day breakfast with 2 families and celebrated Leila’s 15th birthday. Yes, 15!!

Welcome Emerson Louise Burrell

We were thrilled to take 4 days after Christmas to make a trip down to Charleston, SC to see Uncle Zach, Aunt Christina and our new cousin/niece born on Saturday, December 7. She is a beautiful baby girl, and we loved spending time with all 3 of them. Poppy joined us making our adventure more fun and our Suburban more packed. Just when we thought we couldn’t fit any more in the car, we veered off 95 to get “the good fireworks” that only SC has. They helped us ring in the new year and the new decade!