Happy 1st Birthday to Sweet Little Lucy!!

Reminiscing over this past year with our sweet girl is one thing we've been very thankful to be able to do! It began before she was born, when we prayed for a baby. God taught me to let Him be in control and trust His timing instead of doing everything in my power. Once I surrendered my will, we were expecting a baby the next month! God is so gracious and kind.

Once she arrived, I ran on adrenaline for a couple days while Scott was completely wiped out! We were thankful and proud parents of a healthy little baby girl, and we were beyond exhausted. Our house was overrun with gifts and baby "things" for a  while. God had much to teach us in those early days about sacrificial love. I thought that Lucy wanting to eat every time I sat down to eat my meal was a big deal. Ya right! It is amazing to think of our small sacrifices in comparison with the sacrifices Jesus made when  
He humbled Himself, left Heaven to come live here, and then died for the sins of the world!

There have been hard times this past year with our sweet daughter between doctor visits, hospital visits, regular needles, bumps and bruises, etc. We have so much to be thankful for though because it could have been a lot worse, we just got to learn through all the normal "first year" things!

There have been so many wonderful times with our sweet daughter. She is such a blessing and happy little girl! We've been amazed at how quickly she's grown and how much she's learned. The responsibility has been overwhelming if we think too hard about it. We pray for her often as we pray for ourselves, that we would be wise and patient in training her. It is only in the Lord's power that we can train this little girl up for Him and we realize that more every day. We know she's a sinner and everything that goes along with that and we try to remind each other because sometimes when she's being bad, it's just SO cute! Like yesterday when she threw orange pepper chunks and bread at me and then gave me attitude...we both had to look away when she started laughing. After that, she had her own learning moment of what is appropriate behaviour and what is not.

I could go on all day about how wonderful, adorable, loved and loving, sweet, fun, etc that Lucy is. We cannot begin to thank the Lord for blessing us with a daughter, and to think that soon we'll be blessed with another little soul...wow!  
What a loving God to entrust us these lives for a few years in our care.

This little girl of ours is so loved that she got two trunk fulls worth of presents including clothes, toys, books, etc. Enough toys to last the next 3 years, I'm sure!! She knew it was her party too and put on quite a show. She also got to go in the pool for the first time and she ate way too much sugar throughout the day! After all, what are first birthdays for? I would post pictures of all the family and friends (and presents) who participated but it would take so much room!!  
We're thankful for all the people God has placed in our lives and the love they show to Lucy!