My Middle Child

I also started this over a month ago, with the intention of posting it on July 6, Isaiah’s birthday!  Better late than never. 

Happy Birthday, dear one!  Today you are six years old – your golden birthday!  My sweet, silly, sensitive, perplexing middle child, who tends to keep people laughing or wondering. 

I have always wondered if your place in the family, the middle child, has caused any problems for you.  You didn’t get to be the “baby” of the family for long, as Anna was born when you were 17 months old.  I often felt guilty for not giving you all the attention I wished I could have.  And then when you were only three years old Anna got sick and I was gone for so much of the next year.  But when you were younger, you had your ways of making sure you got some extra attention.  Unfortunately, it often involved a trip to the Emergency Room!  Ear infections, a mishap with a cart, febrile seizures, falling into a well pit - it seemed like if something could happen it happened to you! 

But somehow you have just always gone with the flow.  Somehow you seem to have grown and developed and learned enough that you amaze people with what you know and do.  You learned to read, basically on your own, while you were still in preschool, and you continue to take it upon yourself to discover as much about the world around you as you possibly can.  Even when you were a baby, you seemed to just look around and watch and try to take in as much as you could.  Your mind always seemed to be working as you tried to figure things out.  You still notice more than most anyone else, and your curiosity and the questions you ask and the things you can figure out just amaze me. 

There is a side of you that is very organized and exact.  You know the way things should be and really want them to be that way!  You are always counting and figuring and lining things up just so.  When you went to basketball camp earlier this summer, as the kids were practicing their dribbling and shooting, you were the one making sure the cones were lined up just right.  You like things to be in order. 

But that doesn’t mean you are all business!  Your goofy side is always making people laugh.  You have a fun sense of humor and just love to be silly!  You have an easy personality, for the most part.  You are sensitive to others, and have little trouble getting along with anyone.  (Except for maybe your big brother!)

You do look up to your big brother, though.  Very often you become interested in whatever he is interested in, and want to play whatever he is playing.  That works pretty well most of the time, but I know you have your own different interests as well, and I hope you feel free to let them be known. 

The death of your sister has had a great effect on you, understandably so.  Although you are always quick to point out the happy side, that Anna is in heaven, you also very often express your sadness that she is not here.  Sometimes you will walk into her room and say, “I love you Anna!”  Or you will look at her picture and say that you really miss her. Very often when you are making a project or drawing anything, even your work at school, you will write Anna’s name, and often a purple butterfly along with it.  It is obvious that she continues to be a part of you, as I believe she always will!  The two of you got along so well.  She looked up to you and was always so happy when the two of you could be playing together.  You were a great big brother to her and gave her many moments of happiness!!

God has blessed you with many gifts and abilities, and I am excited to see how they continue to be put to use as you grow!  I love you more each day, and consider myself very blessed that I get to be you mom!

Happy Birthday!!!