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!

Christmas 2019

Christmas is always a favorite time of year for us with the family gatherings, hearing “Jesus” in songs and the ease of speaking about Him who we truly celebrate this time of year, the baking and the joy of giving. I love seeing our children excited about gifts they receive, but I’m even more thankful that as they’ve matured they get great joy out of getting together with family and friends and creating and buying gifts for others. We are very, very blessed.

Post-Christmas performance at school. Leila has a small solo!

Fun play date with Sadie.

Putting the star on top.

Our annual MUMS Christmas Leaders Brunch at Cracker Barrel. I love these ladies and love serving with them.

Leila participating in the middle school sweater contest.

Who will win!?

Christmas Eve lunch with Nana who requested fried chicken to eat. Yum!

I sure love this lady.

During our Christmas Eve Candlelight service, we had a spontaneous Christmas pageant. Geoff was chosen as a wise man (in the black). Let’s just say he was quite entertaining and embarrassing.

Christmas Eve with Mimi and Poppy. Girl time!

So sweet.

Christmas morning with these lovely babes of ours.

We were able to share our Christmas tradition of giving before receiving with the Senters this year. We packed 3 boxes of farm goodies and gift cards to deliver to neighbors in need on Christmas morning. And this year we added something new by getting help from the Senters and Kells to provide gifts for 15 men living in an addiction recovery home around the corner from us (Bibles, toiletries and some specific clothing items were requested). Our kids get so excited about all of this. I love it!

After making cards and packing the gifts, we headed out in our PJs. Going to the recovery home really blessed us as they were so thankful and prayed for us when we wanted to pray for them. 

Christmas afternoon with Nonnie and Grandad. Such fun!

Santa brought Grandma and Grandpa laser tag guns. 

Uncle Mike came from Texas for Christmas festivities, which of course included sword fighting.

Benaiah loves his Aunt Keesha!

Happy 8th Birthday, Frazier!

Dear Frazier,

You are my tough and tender little boy, and we sure love being your parents. You are an incredibly patient big brother to Benaiah, and he loves playing with you. He started calling you Bubba just recently and says it as soon as he wakes up since you two share a room. You are very forgiving to your 2 big sisters who can get frustrated with your antics and retaliate. Two minutes later you are ready to play and offer something of yours to them.

Your teacher says you are a friend to everyone and always ready to help someone and make them laugh. You are excellent in math and have made great progress in reading. Anything you can create, build and redesign is right up your alley. Legos and Nerf guns are definitely your favorite indoor toys, and when you’re outside you want to be on the tractor with Daddy or zooming around on something with wheels. Your current career plans are to work with Daddy. Maybe you’ll continue the family business!

For your birthday we had an incredibly fun family day led by you. Donuts in the morning followed by watching White Christmas and playing with Legos. In the afternoon we went rock climbing at Peak Experience and then had dinner at Cracker Barrel. You ended the evening with more Lego building and eating your requested birthday dessert of snickerdoodles.

Thank you for being such a loving, thoughtful and caring young man. You are becoming a gentleman and taking after your daddy in caring for me so well. You still request my silly nighttime stories and graciously think my voice sounds lovely when I sing to you. It’s a joy to be your momma!

We love you,

Momma and Daddy

Lovely Lady

Wow, isn't she lovely? Leila had her very first middle school dance (The Holly Ball), and looked radiant. We went shopping for dresses, but she ended up liking one that was in my closet the best, so that's what she wore. YouTube helped me figure out how to straighten her hair well. And Daddy accompanied her to the dance as a chaperone. He was the only dad there, so he was in charge of taking cell phones when the students arrived and manning the bathroom. He was impressed with how respectful the kids were, and enjoyed laughing at all the awkward middle school moments. Leila slow danced with 3 boys and had been reminded earlier in the week when her history teacher gave them a tutorial on dancing to "make sure there was enough room for Jesus." She decided she wants Daddy to chaperone again at the next one, so we consider that a great success!