Happy 4th Birthday Emma!
Just when I think you can’t get any smarter or more hilarious, you always surprise me. I love how much you love to learn. You are always challenging yourself to memorize things. You have already learned 5 Bible verses since you started school at North Cobb Christian School this year. I love having you at NCCS with me everyday! My favorite part is riding together to and from school and hearing all about what is going on in your mind.
The first Bible verse you learned was Psalm 86:11, “Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth.” Emma, my prayer for you is that this is always the desire of your heart. If you focus on the truth of God’s Word, He will never let you down.
You have started doing so many fun things this year. Your bike riding is amazing and you love to go REALLY fast! You continue to be our sweet adventurer. You started dance class this fall at school and you love it. I think you like the dance…but love hanging out with your friends. Your dance instructor always says y’all didn’t get to dance much because you were all talking! I hope you, Ella Wallace, and Anhalise Hendrix are always so close! I also love the way that you call everyone by their whole name, “Jack Wesley Bitner”, “Ella Cathryn Wallace”, and on and on. You are very thoughtful of others and always ask about people. You talk a lot about heaven and ask a lot of questions about God. I love to hear you pray and you always want to lead our family prayers at meals and at bedtime.
You will have your first cousin this spring when Aunt Katie and Uncle Deedle’s baby is born. You are really hoping it’s a girl. I asked you what you would think if it was a boy and you said, “it’s fine as long as he is a girl.” I can’t wait to see how that turns out! But, I know you will be such a good helper to Aunt Katie and you will take great care of your little cousin as you teach him/her to do all the crazy things that you love to do. I sure do pray that y’all will be close! We also continue to pray for God to keep Eli safe and “let him know we are coming to get him.” We have been praying to adopt a little brother for you for the past two years. It would be awesome if this is the year that he comes home. You are so diligent to pray for him and you always tell your teachers and friends about Eli. He is going to love having you as his big sister!
This past year you have also started to really enjoy sports. You love to watch football on TV and cheer with Mommy for Alabama “Roll Tide.” We took you to a Georgia Tech football game and you were so excited to meet the cheerleaders! We took you to a Braves game and you really caught on to the Tomahawk chop. The next event will be a Georgia Tech basketball game very soon. Your favorite team is still the NCCS Eagles and you are great about coming to all of the games…even when it has been a long day, you always love your Eagles! And I love that they love you and let you know how much they appreciate you coming to their games.
You have also traveled a lot this past year! Daddy and I always talk about how cool it is that you have gotten to go so many places! We went to the beach in Destin, Florida for Spring Break. We all went to San Francisco in June with Dad for work. You spent two weeks in Memphis over the summer (most of the first week by yourself at Camp Katie). You and I flew to Memphis for fall break. Next week we are going on a cruise. You love to travel…especially by airplane!
At Cedarcrest Church you continue to learn and grow and explore more about who God made you to be. You come home singing songs and talking about where your offering goes. The church is in the process of building a new building to move into in the spring and you are just as excited as everyone else. Our pastor, George, talked about building a place where kids can grow up learning about Jesus and we can’t wait to make even more memories with Cedarcrest Church!
Emma, you are a joy and a delight. Your Daddy and I are so blessed that God chose us to be your parents. You operate at 100 miles an hour all the time until you finally fall sound asleep every night. You are thoughtful and loving and you love to work hard. You care about others and you love to help everyone. My number one prayer for you as you head into year 4 is that you love Jesus with all of your heart and that you will always serve others. I love being your Mommy and love every second I get to spend with you.
Happy Birthday my sweet and silly girl!
Mommy