i have not yet written to sophie and shared my heart from this past year with her, and she is six, and i don't want to. i don't want her to be six and yet i love her in this age, in this stage and ability. i don't want her to grow taller and yet she outgrows another pair of tights within a few months and her dad stays awake with her and rubs her feet and legs as they ache and grow. i don't want her to continue to get older, and yet she speaks of the future with great hope, of wanting to be a mom, of wanting to love others in a way that makes my eyes fill with tears. and i am blessed. i am blessed to have a daughter so lovely and full of spirit. a daughter so passionate and protective, that at the age of six her heart is full of what it means to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God.
and as much as she is passionate, she is feisty and lacks every ability that one would ever possess to sit still. she lives for our days outside, for exploring with her magnifying glass, for rain and the dead worms that it brings, for dirt piles and the nests they are waiting to become. she walks hand in hand with her sister, sometimes shoving and sometimes looking out for her, but always together. she bikes around this campus like a champion and practices rolling up onto and off the curbs, longing to be able to jump it off the stairs, getting frustrated that that means practicing. she skateboards in the hallway and down the hills, hands at tip and tail with a smile on her face that would rival any other. she would spend hours out there if it meant she could just move all day long.
we love this kid. she teaches us a new and fresh perspective on the world, on others, on what it means to love. i want so desperately to keep her innocent, safe, but those are not the right words. to keep her, just to keep her. we pray for her heart, that it would always beat with this passion that we see, that it would love deeply and protect fiercely, that it would hold onto Jesus and the truth that He is God.
sweet soph, we love you. we are blessed by you. we give thanks every day that you were given to us to be apart of our family.
