Almost Seven

These beautifully cool crisp days, the leaves turning to bright red and brilliant orange, the kids choosing their Halloween costumes...all these things tell me what time of year it is.  Sometimes I think it could very well be 2007 and then other times I am so glad that it isn't.  She has one week left to be 6 years old.  The years with this girl and her brothers are going by too quickly.  We celebrate another year with her and I know that celebrate doesn't even begin to describe what we do on her birthday...but that's what you're supposed to do on birthdays isn't it?  Celebrate.  

We are leaving the 6's and moving on to the 7's.  I have had four 6 year olds and I won't have another one.  It's such a mix of emotions.  I can run the entire spectrum of emotions in minutes or seconds even.  I still mourn what she "should" be doing.  I still think about what she might be doing if her injury had never occurred.  I look at her beautifully long fingers and wonder if she would have been a piano player.  I think about our love of sports and imagine her on the soccer or softball field or would I have maybe even had a dancer, gymnast or cheerleader on my hands.  Yes, my mind goes there...not a lot...but enough, especially this time of year.

I try not to dwell on those things.  I don't want them to linger in my mind and on my heart.  She's here with us and I can hold her and feel the warmth of her next to me.  I can hold her hand and kiss her feet even if my tears are falling on them.  I find contentment in her smile and in those big bright eyes.  I find purpose in taking care of her.  

You can see why "celebrate" doesn't quite explain what we do on her birthday.  Together seems like a much better description of what we will be doing a week from today...just being together.

Colossians 1:16-17 "For in Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through Him and for Him.  He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together."