Natalie is seven!

Dear Natalie,

How sweet, sweet, girl is this possible? Seven sounds so...grown. So second gradeish. You match this well; as this year, you look and act so much older.

You have lost six teeth since your birthday last year. In a Natalie fashion, you did this a little different then most. Your adult teeth started coming in before your bottom teeth were loose. The dentist had to pull your four bottom teeth. You were a champ and didn't even flinch until he pulled the last tooth. I was planning to let you stay home from school that day, but you insisted on going to show off what was missing. The tooth fairy brought you gold sprinkled money that night, it was so fun. You got to meet the tooth fairy at your school and you were most impressed that she knew Mommy's name. You decided then and there that she was real afterall.

You had a wonderful first grade teacher, Ms. Ehlinger. You LOVED her and loved everything about her class. We loved her a bunch too. She challenged you and loved you. You also started the gifted program. This was a much more difficult transition for all of us. You cried a lot those beginning days. There is much yet to be sorted out with this program. Overall, you adjusted well. You did officially "skip" gifted one day, which was impressive to us. You were on the bus to take you from your school to the gifted school when one of your friends told you that your class was doing a cool art project. You promptly got yourself off that bus and went back to your regular class. Thank goodness Ms. Ehlinger knows you well.

Which leads me to, you are so creative, artistic, and musical. You can draw better then Mommy can. You have started piano lessons with Aunt Pam and have greatly enjoyed them too. You love to sing and are getting better all of the time. You sang "Mary Did You Know?" in front of the whole church at Christmas. You beg to listen to "your radio station" which is Disney Pandora. You also started gymnastics this year. We were willing to do this because this isn't something you are naturally great at doing. You are blessed that a lot of things come easily to you. As a result we were noticing you were not very persistent. If something was a little difficult, you were giving up easier then we were comfortable with. Gymnastics was challenging. And you pleasantly surprised us. You practiced your cartwheels all day, whenever you could, wherever you could. ALL of the time. With more work then we have seen you do, you are good at that too. It makes us so very proud to see you develop more persistence.

You and Micah continue to love each other and get on each other's nerves. He is old enough now to have an opinion and this has been hard for you. At least once a day he declares, "Natalie, quit interrupting me!" You really are a good big sister to him and protect him, at least when you feel like he needs it.

You have many loves. Your favorite restaurant is Moes. You love to "mix drinks". You have changed this year from chocolate milk every morning to vanilla milk. You love the shows Arthur, The Magic School Bus, Angelina Ballerina, Spiderman and his amazing friends and any Disney Princess Movie. You have started reading chapter books and really like the Just Grace, Ivy and Bean, and Mercy Watson series. You love the beach and love to swim. You absolutely still love soccer and love being so very competitive.

You are planning your first sleep over for your birthday this year. You and your friends could not be more excited. Several girls from our church are coming over. You've been busy making crowns and all sorts of things for them. You want a Princess theme party and of course, daddy has big plans for your cake.

This year has been hard for Dad and Mom because we have walked through some difficult conversations with you. You heard about the school shooting in Connecticut that killed 21 first graders, little kids, your age. As we discussed this, we talked about the "good guys" and the teachers who tried to and did protect their class. Then a child brought a gun to your school. We talked again. You told us how you would respond to a gun and how you try to avoid being shot. You were so matter of fact with this conversation. It was hard for us. These are things we really didn't think about when we were little. We often struggle with empowering you with information you need, but not scaring you with details that you should not know.

In those hard conversations, we have talked with you more about God. About why He "lets" bad things happen. We've talked about "good guys", "bad guys", and the fact that God loves "all guys". You've wrestled with questions around grace and mercy. You asked me "if God would allow the devil into heaven if the devil apologized". We have talked. We have prayed. You declared to us the other day that you want a princess party because each of your friends and you are "God's Princesses". You tilted your head just so when you said it, with a big sparkle in your bright blue eyes. We had to agree with you. Indeed you are a Child of the King, which makes you a Princess.

Our prayer for you is to continue to know God more. To continue to wrestle over His grace, mercy, and love. To always seek your answers from Him and His word. We pray you continue to love others, to demand justice, and to refuse to be satisfied with simple answers that ignore questions. We pray for you to have good friends and to be a good friend. Most of all we pray for you to know God's love and salvation.

You sing this song around our house all of the time...
Dear Princess Natalie, may you forever apply the words to your life:

"Lord, the sky's still blue
For my hope is in you
You're my joy
You're the dream that's still alive
Like the wind at my back
And the sun on my face
You are life
You're grace
You are blue skies
You're my blue skies
When nights are long
Seems the dark has no end
Still we walk on in light of the truth
For waiting beyond
Where the morning begins
Is the dawn, and you're mercy anew
Oh, to believe we're alive in you're love
There is so much to see
If we keep looking up"

Keep dreaming, singing, dancing, flipping, drawing, writing, reading, loving, and believing. Look up baby girl. You are blessed.

We love you, forever, for always, no matter what.

Daddy & Mommy