Darling Adela,

Never could I have imagined what a joy it would be to have a daughter. You are a good person. Your heart is gold. I did ABC adjectives to describe your brother in his birthday letter. Let me attempt the same for you. You are agreeable. You rarely argue, almost always obedient, easily pleased. You are altruistic. There is not a special thing you have that you would not share with others. You are aware of how your actions affect others and want others to be happy. You are admirable. You make me want to be a better person.  You are artistic, always doing crafts, writing poems, making things like cards, ornaments, and bookmarks or writing stories. You have unparalleled focus if I give you crafting supplies. You enjoy creating things. That was a lot of A’s. How about B’s? You’re brainy and benevolent and beautiful, inside and out. Cheerful most of the time. Careful in almost every way. Caring, compassionate and cute. You are delicate, in that you are sensitive. Your emotions are easily affected and yet you are courageous in overcoming them. You are deep. You already ask hard questions and think about the things that matter. You have to be one of the most dutiful 9-year-old on the planet. Always responsible. You always take what is expected of you very seriously. You are dear, so dear to me.  And so much more…

In academics, you are always excelling. I have had to stop posting all the awards you win, because it seems braggy to be honest about how incredible you are. You have received awards for Math, for Art, for character and for being in general a great student. You got straight A+s on your last report card. Yep. Not even just As. Add the pluses on. You do your homework without complaint and without nagging. In fact, the Teacher’s Choice award you received last quarter was for that very thing, being self-directed. That’s you. Give you a task and you will do it. You’re never looking for ways out of your responsibilities. You never do just the bare minimum. You get the jobs done, and well. And you rarely complain about it. One thing I admire about you, is that your competition is yourself. You don’t seem to have any issue with comparing yourself with others in either derogatory or prideful ways. I’ve never heard you say you are better or worse than anybody at anything. When you want to get faster in your Math races, it’s to beat your own best score. It’s something that seems to come naturally to you. You have always been a content child, easy to please, and so far that is still true. I could count on one hand (can’t even think of a time right now) when you have come home from school and told me that so and so has this or that and you want it, or that it’s unfair someone else has something that you don’t have. It just doesn’t happen. I don’t think envy is going to be your vice. You’re usually happy with what you have, and grateful when you get something. It’s so much maturity from someone so young. It blows my mind.

You are still very much a child. I’m grateful for all the ways in which we have been able to help you maintain your innocence thus far. I know it won’t last forever and you will become more aware of the world, but you still seem so pure. You are still sweet and kind. We don’t know a lot about Pop culture in this house and we don’t miss any of it. You only know what You Tube is because when you guys want to know things… like how candy is made, or how a giraffe sleeps… we watch videos. Even watching commercials is a novelty because we really only watch Netflix and movies, and occasionally Food Network. Your head is not filled with garbage. It’s not like we are crazy strict. It’s more like we don’t consume garbage, so you don’t. The goal is not to protect you so much that you don’t know how to make your own decisions. The goal is to strengthen you so that when the time comes, you are able to make your own decisions wisely. I am thinking more and more about how to equip you to learn to moderate these things for yourself. I’ve been convicted lately about being even more cognizant of the time I spend looking at my phone. Phones are not that far away in your future (a bit, but it’ll be here before we know it), and the goal is not to be your jailer and your conscience. I want you to be able to moderate what you consume. That is and has always been my goal. We talk about being aware of the messages around us and deciding what we will consume and abstain from. But I have to live it too. When you’re talking to me and I can’t resist checking my phone, it’s not a very good example. Our whole life things are shoved in our face that are easy, things that satisfy briefly and rob us of something better. We all have to learn to be discriminating. I’m still learning too, to always put things through the filter of eternity.

But I get glimpses of what you are becoming and who you might be someday. Because you are so easy to please and seem to like everything, it’s hard to say what your passions might end up being. Lately, however, I have started to see a passion for words. You have liked books and reading always, but give you a chance to write something and you really light up. Lately, as I mentioned, you’ve started writing poems. One of the homework options you have every week is to turn your spelling word list into a story. It’s my favorite thing to read what you come up with. We frequently make up stories together, in bed before sleeping or on long car rides. We’ll start with a random character and take turns adding on. Josiah and Daddy participate too sometimes, but Josiah just usually adds on, “and then, it exploded!” to every story, so I usually have to bring in magic that recreates the world he just blew up. We’ve told stories of Lego people stranded on desert islands infested with dangerous dinosaurs and airships powered by magic owls who came to their rescue. We’ve told stories of a lonely Christmas tree in a Christmas tree farm who found his true destiny. We’ve told stories of a snowed-in bakery that was commandeered by Santa’s elves to save Christmas. I kind wish I had them all written down. I really hope you guys remember some of these things, but even if you don’t, I know they are helping to shape you into who you will be. I know these days are precious and fleeting.

Your spiritual acuity is a joy to my heart as well. I love our family devotions (Daddy joins us when he’s home, but it’s usually the 3 of us in the morning before school.) You really listen. I can see the fruit of a thousand seeds starting to form. May God continue to make them grow. It makes my spirit sing whenever you ask a hard question. Sometimes it’s a joy to help you come to an understanding. And it’s also a joy to show you that it’s okay to not have all the answers. Learning to come to God with my questions instead of seeking out my own answers would have saved me a lot of heartache. I want you to know (and therefore love) God more than anything. You and your brother both. May He do it.

You are very in to horses. We splurged for your birthday and got something sort of big for you. I usually very much dislike big toys that can’t be put away. But when you saw an American Girl (Our Generation) horse at Target, pretty white with a pink saddle, and then were willing to forgo buying anything else with the$20 gift card you had in order to save for it and continued saving for it for a couple of months, we decided to surprise you with it, along with the matching stable, for your birthday. You’ve been a good Mommy to Clara (the American Girl doll you’ve had for several years) lately. Dressing her, putting her to bed, and now, riding her horse. Mimi surprised you with the promise of horseback riding lessons in the spring. We’re excited about that!

Your birthday party was fun, and it was all your idea. You requested a Christmas party with cookie decorating and a stocking craft. So you and your friends got to customize your own stockings and decorate and eat sugar cookies. Even though your third grade class has only 5 kids in it this year, we had the perfect number of kids show up between new and old friends to fill up our dining room table and kitchen.

Other random details about your current self… you will not eat your lunches. Ugh. No matter how I encourage, threaten, remind, bribe. You say you don’t have time, but you have 3 chances to snack or eat during the day. You normally eat a quarter of what I send with you. And it doesn’t matter what. I understand you like some things better than others. But you will even leave cookies homemade cake in your lunch sometimes. You will eat a couple of bites of something and bring the rest home. It’s exasperating. I wish you would eat! But you’re healthy and eat plenty when you’re at home. I just think you’d rather play than eat, and you have always been a dainty eater. You and your brother both are little bean poles. I follow you around the house with spoons of peanut butter and hunks of cheddar cheese to try to fatten you up, but I know you’ll eat when you’re hungry. I’m not worried about it. I just hate throwing away so much food from your lunchboxes.

You like Hatchimals and Lego sets. Your skin freaks out in the winter time so you have a litany of creams and ointments to put on your dry patches and cracked toes and peeling lips. You have a locket collection. You like to give little homemade gifts to people. It’s sweet. You get up to an alarm clock, read your Bible, make your bed, get dressed, do your own hair every morning by yourself without any reminders or help from me. You love to have your back tickled. You ask me almost every night. I do sometimes, but I’d rather read to you. Lately, we’re reading Little Women together. It’s the 4th large novel we’ve read aloud together this year. Pizza is still your favorite food. For your birthday, I made you an egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast, put pizza in your lunch, and for dinner you requested “Daddy’s” (we don’t know what that means and you can’t tell us) chicken (I made it), plus macaroni and cheese, plus oven roasted asparagus with lemon. Mario Party is all the rage any time we are together as a foursome with nowhere to be. We like to watch baking challenge shows together as a family too. When Daddy is gone, we sometimes watch old episodes of Little House on the Prairie. That’s still your favorite book series. You’re rereading it on your own right now.

That’s a little snapshot of you, 9 years on the planet. I am so very proud of you, Silly Willy. You are and always will be my favorite girl.