Celebrating Our Gift

Susanna Jane turned 1 on Saturday, June 30.

She would not wear her birthday hat, take a long nap before the party or eat her cupcake. She did walk more than she crawled, play in the dirt, allow a lot of people to pass her around in a new place, and go to bed easily and happily at the end of the day.

She is a gift. Every day I look at her and I thank God for giving me such a sweet, joyful daughter to show me how selfish and sinful I am. {I know it sounds negative. It's not. Conviction is a gift from the Lord that I value and appreciate. God is using this little lady to make me more like Jesus.}

I worked really hard on the party. Mostly I wanted to throw a big bash to celebrate that we made it! I've been planning on Pinterest for months.

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I am so thankful for my grandparents (both sets), who came to help set up, clean up, and love on Susanna. My friends Jenny and Kellie blessed me with help and the beautiful photographs, respectively. And of course, our amazing guests, who brought gifts for a one-year-old who doesn't know how blessed she is.

I keep saying it all over town and social media, but it's true: people have done double duty in prayers for us this year. We are new parents and prefielders. Prefielders who are also new parents. What were we thinking?

Well, we made it.

She's amazing, thanks to Jesus.