Birthday season

This little muchkin will be turning six in just a little over three weeks. This was her first birthday and the way she is enjoying her cake is the way she enjoys life. All the way, good and bad, this girl gives it her all.

Have you heard of hunting season? Well around here we are coming up on birthday season. All of our kids have their birthdays within seven and a half weeks. All six of them including little Olivia with Jesus. Kind of an interesting fact since it is almost harvest season as well. Someone had a dream about me years ago after we lost Olivia and before we had any other children. The woman having the dream was bringing several large bags of seeds to our home. When she arrived I was too busy to talk as I was tending to the seedlings all around me. She said that they were everywhere, so she went on her way and left me to to my task. When she woke up she and her husband felt very strongly that John 12:24 was for us.

"I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds."

That dream became a promise to me as I went through the dark time of grieving our loss as well as the excruciating adoption process that followed 2 years later. I find it kind of cool that all of the children we have had, adopted or biological, here or in heaven, all have their birthdays during harvest. We celebrate all of their birthdays individually here at home with presents and having them choose their favorite dinner. Last year we started a new tradition where we also have one big bash with their cousins and friends celebrating all of their birthdays together. It is my hope and prayer that someday when they are grown they will still choose to get together for their birthdays.

Now, God may have more children for us. I don't know. They may even have birthdays in the spring and that would be alright. But for now, this little fact about their birthdays I enjoy. It makes me smile. It's a reminder to me that he cares about the littlest of things and that makes me feel cared for in the darkest of times.