Goodbye 2012 and the Three's!

Christmas Day, 2012

Dear Madeline and Savannah,

Well, I'm back. In the year 2012, I successfully made a mere one week run of daily posts while on our vacation together in the mountains nearly 10 months ago.  One week of posts, and that was it!  It was always my intention since before you were even born of keeping up with the blog so that you would have a record of memories to look back on years from now - typing it up electronically with electronic photographs is definitely your momma's style. And yay for "Blog-To-Print"! But still, I only found 1 week in the entire year of 2012 to sit down and type away. Ouch!  No excuses, so not even going to try, but instead, here goes one of my many New Year's Resolutions: Keep a better record this year - both for you two, and for me!

So, in an effort to play a little catch-up, let's see if I can give 2012 any ounce of justice that it so richly deserves with a quick recap of what life with you two as 3-year olds was like, before I move onto this next year of life with two 4-year olds!!

Who created the saying "Terrible Two's"?  Wait...I'm sure I could look back on blogs from 2011 and find where I probably said that myself.  But the two's had nothing on the three's!  Yes, you could communicate better, and yes you could start doing things for yourselves (way to go girls!), but yes, you could also show me what incredibly strong wills you have at such a young age, and how opinionated you already are in regards to your own choices:  clothes, socks, hair, shoes, colors, what side of the car to ride on, clothes - did I already say that?  Wow, are you girls already my little fashionista's in a serious way.  (All the way down to telling me what you think of my outfit, which I do take very seriously, thank you.) Every morning there is a struggle that I have pinned "Wardrobe Wars".  For a very long time, every morning was a terrible struggle of what to wear.  Finally, your daddy and I started to back off a little, and just let you choose. "Madeline and Savannah, go put your clothes on." And off you'd run to your room, only to re-emerge a few short minutes later with an outfit that actually worked!  WHEeewww.....somedays, not so good.  But the majority of the days were going (and are going) great.  Once we got past the seasonal changes and convinced you that shorts and flip flops were not appropriate for 50 degree days, you got it!  And life became a little easier every morning with just a simple "Girls, go put your clothes on."  Yes, we still have our battles - but all this tells me is the strength, resilience and tough will's you both have on knowing what you want, and doing nothing short of fighting for what you want.  Let's just hope that we are steering that will in an ultimately good and positive will because my goodness do I have 2 strong-willed little girls.  Two future leaders, that's a fact.

My evening prayer ritual with you has been asking that God send his angels each night to watch over and protect you, and that He would continue to build in you a heart of gold.  Your little selfs, your sweet spirits, your strong wills, I pray, are completely in God's hands and I'm daily asking that He gives me and your daddy the wisdom and guidance to know how to best "train up a child in the way he (she) should go."(Prov. 22:6).

This past year was full of some major life changes, and with grace and resilience, you two kept up with the changing pace like a couple of pro's.  I laid my consulting business to rest for a while and started back to work full-time, put you girls in child-care full-time for the first time ever, and, we built a house from the ground up....

...Meaning we moved you into the 3rd house in your 3 years of life.  But you felt such ownership through it all - making weekly/daily visits, knowing it was going to be your house, helping to pick out colors....you got to walk through the house every step of the way.  (This one deserves its own post later).

Through all of the changes, however, one thing I've really noticed is that our snuggle time has drastically increased.  I've noticed your social skills and interaction improve, your creative play has increased beyond cuteness measure, and your little minds are sharper and brighter than I could have imagined.  You are counting not only in English, but in Spanish and Russian.  You know the letters of the alphabet not only in our language, but in Russian, along with songs and sayings that I have no idea what they mean.  And the very best part - your prayers, oh your prayers.  You both can say a prayer that I know makes Jesus' heart sing!  You are always thanking Him - ALWAYS.  Even if you're asking for something, it starts out with a "Thank you" such as, "Thank you Jesus for Jennifer cancer out of her body".  You know to thank Him for the answer before we even ask!  What faith we should all strive to have!  And what a lesson from the innocent hearts of you two girls.

I know I could keep writing, but with a dedication to blog more, I'll save some stories for another day.  Maybe I can use this month as a catch-up month, with stories and memories from 2012, and then commit to staying caught up through 2013.  I started this letter feeling a little bit of pain...parenting pain mostly....what a tough job this is!  Parenting really is not for cowards.  It is tough, it is exhausting, but my goodness with the reminder of all the beautiful things I see, and how quickly time is passing, is it also the most rewarding, most meaningful, most incredible gift to be given a person.  We are doing our best, and pray for the wisdom and knowledge to continue guiding you two little girls into growing up to become amazing, godly women with plans God has in store for you two that are unimaginable.  I love you girls.  And thank you for telling me and your daddy every day, several times a day "I love you so much" for no other reason than just because, well, you do.  I hope this means we're doing something right. :-)

Love,
Mommy