Sweet Caroline,

You are SIX today! You have been so excited to use both of your hands to show your age, and the day is finally here. We are celebrating you all week – today with just our little family, and on Saturday with a flower garden tea party. Celebrating you comes so easily because you bring such joy to all of us.

• This has been a monumental year of transition for you and for our family. We left the USA for the great unknown of Latvia exactly one month ago today. Several months ago, when you realized we would be moving in September, your response was, “But that will be so close to October and I won’t have any friends by my birthday.” But oh, little one, how the Lord has provided. You have 8 little girls coming over on Saturday for a flower garden tea party. Many of them don’t speak English, but they already are drawn to your sweet spirit.
• Speaking of making friends, you are often rather shy in a new large group, but you very quickly seek out individuals to befriend. You also often look for the ones in need and go to them first. At our IMB training in Virginia this summer there was a little boy in your class from Russia who spoke no English. You took him under your wing for those weeks and made sure he always had a friend and knew what was going on. You even learned several Russian words so you could play games with him! Oh, the heartbreak you felt when you realized he was leaving early to go back to Russia and you would have to say goodbye. Even here in Latvia, you have already been bold enough to make a new friend on the playground. Her name is Anna and she looks for you almost every day after school. She is planning to come to your birthday party and I hope that she will see Jesus’ love in you as your friendship grows.
• You truly love fiercely. Whether it’s your mommy and daddy, your sisters, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, or friends, your special people mean so much to you. You have special relationships with each one of them and spending time with them (in person or on FaceTime) or receiving emails from them brings so much joy to your heart.
• You are also very protective of those you love. You don’t like it when either of your sisters are in trouble and you will frequently go to bat for them even if you were the one wronged. We played a game at training this summer where the children had water balloons and had to try to get the dads as wet as possible. You just about lost it when you saw a bunch of little boys going after your daddy. We explained to you that it was just a game and that Daddy was a willing participant, but you would have none of it.
• This year you have just blossomed as a reader. You are now voraciously reading anything you can get your hands on. You are reading and loving small chapter books like the American Girls. You also love reading to Eleanor and she loves it as well. The two of you can frequently be found playing family or school and you usually end up reading picture books to your adoring student.
• While reading and playing family/school are your activities of choice with Eleanor, card games and board games are your favorite things to do with Anna Kate. It has been so fun to watch you start to really understand more advanced games this year (like Thirty-One and Yahtzee, for example). You also play more elaborate pretend games with Anna Kate. Most recently you all have been playing restaurant, flying treehouse, and treasure hunt mapping. You really are becoming less like a baby sister and more like a peer to Anna Kate and I hope you will always be the best of friends.
• You are doing really well this year on the violin. You can now play Twinkle with several variations. We are still working on establishing really good posture and position before we move on, but you are improving well!
• You absolutely love babies. You have such instinctively mothering nature and you are just drawn to anyone younger than you. You always want to nurture and protect them and make them smile and giggle.
• You have been doing a lot of coloring lately. Part of that is because all of your toys and games are still on a crate somewhere between South Carolina and Latvia, but you really have been enjoying more intricate coloring pages. Your favorites are artistically illustrated Bible verses. You have a whole folder filled with your work and it brings you much joy.
• Speaking of joy, you have a contagious smile and giggle. It just lights up everyone around you. I found a video just the other day that you had done on my phone (unbeknownst to me) of yourself dancing and you are just smiling and giggling and dancing your heart out. It is precious and I’ll keep it forever.
• We have discovered that you truly excel at gymnastics. We let you and Anna Kate do one semester before we moved and you both had the best time! You are a natural when it comes to cartwheels, one-hand cartwheels, and powerful round-offs. You also are a very strong climber. We would love to find an opportunity here in Latvia for you to do recreational gymnastics, but for right now you sure enjoy it anytime you’re outside!
• You discovered your very first loose tooth last week! You are so excited, but I still think it might be a while. You’ve sure been wiggling it a lot, though!
• You give the best early morning snuggles. I think it’s because you aren’t exactly ready to get up when Anna Kate gets up for school, but you don’t want to stay in bed either because you’re afraid you’ll miss out on something. So you slowly make your way to the living room with your face in your blankie and find the nearest parent. You usually remain snuggled with one of us for a good 5-10 minutes before you’re ready to start the day.
• You pray beautifully heartfelt prayers and you write precious songs to Jesus. We are not sure you truly understand the depth of your need for a Savior and the magnitude of what he has done for us, but which of us truly does? You are growing in your love and understanding of God and it is our prayer that he would save you and hold you fast all the days of your life.

Caroline, our little Bear, we love you more than you will ever know. You are one of God’s greatest blessings to our family and we are so grateful he gave you to us.

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

P.S. – Here are your birthday pictures from the past six years!