Happy 4th Birthday.

Today is Junia's 4th birthday.

Tomorrow we will have a party with 2 of her friends.
We will probably let her choose dinner.
And next weekend the Grandparents will join us for another celebration.

I just hung up our family birthday banner.  That's the picture from when I made it.

I have now been Junia's Mama longer than I was in college.
Longer than I have had any single job.
Only a tad longer than I have been married to Sean.

But I don't need to say, "she has grown so fast." or "time flies" or "I can't believe it."
I do believe it. She seems 4.
It seems like 4 years ago.
There are snippets of memories that seem a decade old and others that seem like they happened yesterday. But that is how many of my memories are, it feels like life.

So Junia is 4.
And because of her I am slowly becoming a better person.
Because of her spirit and her gentleness, because of her joy and her wisdom, because of her curiosity and goofiness, because of her meltdowns and fears I am made better.

She shows me a face of God I have never before known.
Each day this God is newly unveiled.
She shows me a face of myself that I once denied.
She shows me the greater whole of who Sean is.
In fact, it is only rarely now that I don't see a side of people through their experience of Junia.

This parenthood is rich.

And these words, that we blessed you (and your sister) with when you were first born, these words we will bless you with again tomorrow,  I hope, my beloved daughter that they will be and are as true as ever.

So