Happy Birthday Emma!

My little girl went to bed last night a seven-year-old, and woke up this morning an eight-year-old. For some reason, that sounds really, really different to me! Eight!? My firstborn child cannot be eight! When did I blink and eight years went by?
Nonetheless, she is eight, and we are so proud of who she is.
A few things about Emma...as you can see in the picture above, she loves horses. In fact, she loves every animal God made, but she can't ride all of those animals and do cool tricks like she can on horses. (Although she absolutely would ride a cheetah if it were possible. She's convinced that will happen in heaven.)
Emma and I took a girls trip last weekend to her horse show in Glen Rose. We originally were all going to go, but Ike changed all our plans. So it was just us girls. I don't think we've done that since she was a baby! We did the horse show thing...I watched her ride and dazzle us with her amazing ability to control an enormous horse with her tiny little frame...we stayed in a hotel room together, and snuggled up at night, reading Ramona books together...we got take-out and had a hotel room picnic...we watched a movie, went to a strange church together, and had plenty of good conversation. It was just fun! I feel like I know her even better, and I can see how those kinds of weekends are going to be paramount to a sweet mother-daughter relationship as she gets older.
I'm proud of a lot of things about Emma, but most of all, what I tell her constantly that I'm most proud of, is the way she loves God. Her heart is His! She loves the Lord, she longs to please Him, and she loves the Word! Last night, her Daddy was teaching from Matthew 7 in family worship time, when Jesus tells us not to judge, and tells us to deal with the log in our own eye before we address the speck in our brother's eye. These sort of analogies can be difficult for children, who are concrete thinkers, to decode. However, I'm amazed at how the Holy Spirit speaks to them and gives them the ability to understand the scripture. Rusty started to explain this, and Emma shot up her hand and said "Oh! I know what that means! See, the speck and the log are sin! And it means you should confess your own sin before you try to help someone else out with their sin." Her explanation was even more thorough than that, and Rusty and I just sat there with our mouths open. Rusty then handed her the Bible and asked her to preach on!
Her pointed questions and observations continue to teach me. I'm watching her grow right before my very eyes.
Eight years ago, she kept me up three nights in a row laboring and delivering her. Yes, her labor was a marathon. She came into the world with wide eyes open, searching for us, and taking everything in she could. She hardly ever slept, afraid she might miss something. (She still doesn't sleep.) She cried...A LOT!!!...and was a high-maintenance, yet gorgeous, baby. (She loves these stories, how I came home from the hospital so tired from three nights sleep lost, exhausted to the point I couldn't do anything but cry. And how I would rock and nurse her and Rusty would walk in to find me bawling, and I'd say "I just love her so much!" Having a baby can make you crazy in the head.) But in truth, this day eight years ago, I was transformed into a new facet of me, which is Emma's Mom. It's been amazing, and sanctifying, and precious every day. Not a day has gone by, no matter how difficult or easy, that she hasn't been an enormous blessing to us. We are so grateful for you Emma! You are a gift entrusted to us by the Lord!
Our Bible reading this morning I selected for breakfast was Psalm 139:15-18. I memorized this chapter when I was pregnant with Emma. As amazing as it is, no matter how much we love all four of our children, God loves them more. Our love pales in comparison to His. His love is great. His love is sacrificial. His love gave His own Son for us. It's important for Emma to know she's loved by us. (And of course, she does.) But it's most important for her to know how God loves her.
Thank you God for September 18, 2000. We are thankful for Emma Michal Bacak.