![\"OLYMPUS](\"https:\/\/todayslegacy.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/01\/dw055648.jpg\")
<\/p>\nSomeone fantastic turned 7 years old yesterday!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Prior to her birthday, Rachael celebrated with Matt’s side of the family with a cookie cake and blessings from Aunt Ellen and the gang as well as Grandma and Grandpa. Rachael was thrilled to receive an origami book (we’ve already made a butterfly together) and a Snow White doll. Rachael also received two awesome packages in the mail the day before her birthday.<\/p>\n
One from her (Great) Aunt Greer revealed a beautiful prairie bonnet that will protect her little head from the future African sun.<\/p>\n
And the second package came from Aunt Jes. What was inside? None other than Laura Ingalls Wilder herself. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n Rachael is one HAPPY and BLESSED\u00a0girl!<\/p>\n On her birthday,\u00a0it was a more normal one with homeschooling, house chores, and a quiet night in. As an added surprise, Rachael got to skip any one subject in homeschool for the day that she desired, so Grammar got the boot. Hehe.<\/p>\n And as per tradition, she got to pick out dinner. This year she wanted to have a candlelight birthday meal so I decked out the table in celebration.<\/p>\n And guess what we ate via Rachael’s choice?<\/p>\n Soft tacos, mashed potatoes and root beer. =) Not all blended of course. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n After a giant cupcake happily split amongst all of us, Rachael picked the first Ice Age movie to enjoy her birthday evening. My favorite part of the whole evening is a toss-up between sharing things we like about Rachael’s character at dinner time (though the preschool crowd comes up with some random things) and watching Rachael lose it in hysterical laughter at the stinky diaper scene when the Ice Age characters are trying to figure out what the baby needs. She DIES laughing during that scene at their utter panic as they fumble about to stop the crying baby.\u00a0Hehe.\u00a0She doesn’t realize the natural training she’s had with babies and little kids so it makes the scene even more entertaining to her.<\/p>\n ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<\/p>\n My Dear\u00a0Rachael,<\/p>\n Happy\u00a07th Birthday!!! Wow! SEVEN! You’re getting\u00a0HUGE!<\/p>\n I love your heart and the way you\u00a0flock to babies because you love to love them and play with them. I love your contagious smile and the way\u00a0you’re not afraid to explode with excitement. I love how you genuinely think of others and just have to make people cards and pictures when they’re not feeling well, have birthdays, or\u00a0you just want to brighten their normal. I love how you create such cool 3D (even if you\u00a0don’t quite know what that means yet) pictures, recreating things you have seen or imagine with construction paper and craft supplies. I love how you love to read, not even aware that you happily initiate sitting for 30 or 40 minutes to read books to your sisters or curling up on the couch with one of your chapter books. And I love how you find me amongst my house chores to tell me a funny part of the chapter, fighting through the giggles as you reread the section to me. I love how you think about others, serving them, especially your sisters who aren’t always easy to serve. But so often you see the greater lesson and take the low road so they can have first choice. It may not look like I see that or hear that in those moments that you’re just trying to keep your little sisters from being grumpy during one of those awesome games you have created, but I really do see that and it’s a beautiful thing to watch. I love how you dive into Eden’s world, fully absorbed in helping her be happy. Whether it’s boosting her up so she can also see and be a part of the fun or dressing her up too so she won’t be left out, you see her and it’s so beautiful to watch. It’s no wonder your sisters copy you and want to be like you. You’re a wonderful person! And we all se something in you that we just want to be around.Rachael, you make my day so much more fun.<\/p>\n This year, the week after your birthday, I am going to Peru for a missions trip. I know that you’re nervous about it and don’t want me to go, while\u00a0you also want me to go to tell the little kids about Jesus.\u00a0\u00a0I hear your heart. I’m going to miss you A LOT too. But I wanted you to know what I’m going to miss most of all about you in the ten days that I’m gone. Rachael, you help make my normal. I’m going to miss most the normal things: that twinkle in your eye, sharing homeschool lessons with you on our bellies with Eden riding my back, seeing your maturity break through when I serve a side dish that is not your favorite and yet you eat it without complaint, hearing you talk about Africa with a bounce in your step and a thrill in your tone, passing by a room to find you secretly and humbly investing in your sisters, that big smile as you read another chapter of a book you’ve picked out. Rachael, I’m just going to miss you, wonderful, fantastic you. So thank you for being such an awesome kid that I can’t wait to come back home to even before I have ever left!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Happy 7th Birthday, my sweet Rachael. You’re such a light in my world and a delight to my heart.<\/p>\n I love you so.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Love,<\/p>\n Mommy<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Someone fantastic turned 7 years old yesterday! Prior to her birthday, Rachael celebrated with Matt’s side of the family with a cookie cake and blessings from Aunt Ellen and the gang as well as Grandma and Grandpa. Rachael was thrilled to receive an origami book (we’ve already made a butterfly together) and a Snow White… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,9,16,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bravo","category-my-heart","category-thankful-and-grateful","category-the-oldest","clear"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/todayslegacy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/todayslegacy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/todayslegacy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/todayslegacy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/todayslegacy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/todayslegacy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14634\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/todayslegacy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/todayslegacy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/todayslegacy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"IMG_5370\"](\"https:\/\/todayslegacy.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/01\/img_5370.jpg\")
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