Dear Heidi - you're 8!

Happy Birthday Heidi girl!

Our creative, exuberant, home-loving girl is eight! Of all of our children, you were the one I thought would get away without a "lockdown" birthday, but I was wrong! Hard to believe your seventh birthday Narnia party was one of the last things we did before things got serious with Covid last year!

And yet here we are, a full year later. And this year it has been a joy to get to spend more time with you. You are passionate and enthusiastic and have grown up so much this year. Getting to teach you and learn alongside all of you this year has been so fascinating for me, and seeing your creative streak grow and develop has been so much fun. 

One of my favourite things to watch this past year has been your love of baking. From asking if you could help me make cookies last year, to full blown self-invented "Strawberry Cheesecake Cake" this year, you have pushed yourself and explored your creativity. Mostly successfully (no one makes melt-in-your-mouth shortbread cookies like you do), sometimes with questionable results (the cupcakes you decided to adapt the recipe on and play with adding milk to the equation, resulting in hollow cakes!)... you have loved this little hobby and its been a joy to see the joy it brings you as you get covered in flour and fish another egg shell out of the mixture! I will never get tired of coming downstairs in the morning to find a tray of cookies or a cake tin ready to go in the oven!

You've thrown yourself into every homeschool project we've done with FULL enthusiasm... and you work hard to present your work beautifully and artistically. Your homeschool folder is a work of art, and I can't wait to see you poring over it one day in the future with kids around your ankles (maybe in that South American orphanage for street kids you're planning!) telling them what life was like in lockdown. You have thrived in our home nest, and I know you would rather things stayed exactly as they are - school restarting is not your first choice... and yet I know you'll go in courageously, and though you may not admit it, love all the fun projects and seeing your fabulous friends and teachers again.

Heidi you have taught me so much in eight years... we have walked the hardest paths together, but you are also the one who pushes our family to the peaks of joy. You are hilariously funny, and your joy bubbles over infectiously... we are so very thankful every day that the Lord spared you all those years ago, and we never take for granted your heart-on-sleeve, fun and feisty, heart and soul of our home character.

I'm grateful that even when you get upset and frustrated, or when you make a mistake, you quickly show genuine empathy and repentance. That is such a gift, Heidi, and one that I hope you will always have. To be quick to ask for forgiveness is something that most people find incredibly difficult, and I love seeing the tender-hearted way you recognise when mistakes have been made and seek to make them right. I love seeing the Lord working in your heart, and I pray your love for him will continue to grow as you grow, and that you will know the precious assurance of how loved you are by him, how beautiful you are in his sight and how his forgiveness extends beyond anything we could ever imagine.

We love you our Heidi girl... 

Alles Gute zum Geburtstag!

Mama and Papa

xxxx