“Celebrate life. To truly live, celebrate each day of life. Let each day be a festival of joy.” -RVM

I have a five year old! I can’t believe it. The last few weeks leading up to Eliana’s birthday I have spent a good portion of my time staring at her, taking her in, snuggling with her & wrapping my arms around her… trying to literally embrace this moment in time with her, my 5 year old daughter. As I sit reading her books or tickling her back, or walk up our stairs at night to the sight of her on her tiptoes in her undies brushing her teeth before bed, all of these things I want to lock away in my memory for the rest of my life. Her, right here, right now. She is just as much a dream come true today as she was the day we got to hold her at the hospital an hour after she was born. I, we, are so so blessed.

The night before her birthday, Noah & I blew up an entire pack of balloons & sneaked them all into her room for her to wake up to as a surprise. It was super cute when she came downstairs the next morning telling us all about the balloons & being confused as to how they got there in the first place. After that, as tradition goes, Noah took her in her jammies to go pick out a birthday doughnut. After they got back, they got to go eat their real breakfast at Momo & Papa’s house while Noah & I cleaned & decorated for the party.

For the last six months she has been telling our neighbors (who are are widows or widowers just to paint a picture in your mind) that they were all invited to her birthday. It’s been the cutest. Well, her birthday came two Thursdays ago on the 29th & we celebrated! This was a first for me with a child being old enough to specifically invite people to her party. Up until now we have invited full families over & so this ended up being a mix of lots of 4-6 year olds & a few close friends & families combined. She requested a “ballerina & prince” party, so I did my best & made sure to have lots of tutu skirts for the girls & swords for the boys. The weather was perfect, the grass green & the trees flowering, so it was wonderful to be outside in the sunshine watching all of the kiddos running around in skirts with swords using their imaginations without a care in the world. Oh, & we are currently building a fence around our entire property so there were piles of cement bags, fence boards & posts for the littles to play on as well, so that was fun. No splinters & lots of balance practice. It went well. We decorated with pink pom poms & happy birthday banners, had a few balloons & ate pizza, cuties, pretzels & strawberries along with her requested mini chocolate cupcakes with white frosting & lots of sprinkles. It was simple & great. She sat outside on a blanket & her (along with lots of help from all her friends, you know how it goes 😉 ) opened up sweet gifts & we all sang to her. Her favorite gift for sure was, & I should have known, a pack of gum from her friend Charlie. I now know what I am going to give every other five year old I know for their birthday: 5 one dollar bills & a pack of gum. (Thanks for the inspiration Jennie!) We had the party during lunch time so that everyone (including us) could get children down for their much needed naps after that much fun playing & eating sugar. For dinner that night, we had taco salad, Eliana’s current favorite, along with our traditional birthday lead cake. This is Noah’s specialty & this was one of his best yet! It’s a family recipe & we love it, especially with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream. She opened a few more gifts, we sang again, & she got to blow out her candles. It was a successful day of celebrating our amazing five year old!

The next day we had a special treat & got to Facetime with Eliana’s birthmama, birthgrandma & birthsister! It was wonderful getting to tell them about her birthday & for all of us to connect. It was a highlight for my heart & I know Eliana loved getting to see & talk with them. Adoption is SUCH an incredibly wonderful thing. We love that we have an open adoption & that we are all connected as a family! We have so much love for eachother & I know Eliana is growing up knowing that this is our normal & that it is special & beautiful.

“A simple celebration, a gathering of friends; here is wishing you great happiness, a joy that never ends.” -Zahid Abas

A huge thank you to all of our family & friends both near & far who celebrated with us! As per tradition, I write each of my kiddos a little love note on their birthday so here it goes, this is for you, Bug.

Dearest Eliana,

Oh how I love you. I can’t believe that you are five years old! I have been a parent now for 5 whole years & what a gift it has been. You are a dream come true. The heart that you have within you is so full of beauty! You can’t contain all of it, it spills out of your eyes, out of your mouth in the form of incredible laughter, out of your hands with the way you both create & with the way you embrace. You are full of LIGHT. You are full of JOY. You have made it evident to me how incredibly beautiful Jesus is. The way you present who He is to me & to the world around you is perfectly unique & absolutely beautiful. It is hard to resist the reality of heaven when you come into the room. The spirit within you sings out the glory of the King. You carry that power sweet girl. You have grown up so much this last year, you have an insatiable curiosity & desire to learn. You love to read books, use your imagination, dance, sing, laugh, run, paint, create, be with people & play. You are observant, you notice things, you have an incredible memory & you are attentive. You are sensitive & sweet, you have such a tender heart. You love to ask questions & tell jokes, you love to play with your sister & make your brother laugh. You are responsible & kind, you are gentle & polite. You are a blessing & not a burden, the head & not the tail. You are a leader, not a follower & you love others well. You love to snuggle & cuddle & hug & your love language is definitely physical touch. You are starting to read words & you are really good at rhyming. You love to wear dresses & skirts & your favorite flower clip. You love memorizing Bible verses & poems & if I would let you I think you would watercolor paint every single day. You love going on dates with Dada & helping both him & I whenever you possibly can. You love with such a fierceness. Thank you. You made me a Mama five years ago & I can’t imagine my life without you. I truly am the luckiest. Dada & I, we are the luckiest. Thank you for being exactly who you are, I love you to the moon & back a million trillion times. Happiest birthday to you Bug! You are FIVE wonderful years old. May this next year of your life be one of the absolute BEST yet.

With all my heart, your Mama.

“Live life when you have it. Life is a splendid gift- there is nothing small about it.” -Florence Nightingale

Cheers,

Katie.