Finding your Brave – Year 8

“Finding your Brave” is my daughter’s 8th birthday letter. I’m so incredibly proud of the year my daughter was 7-8. I watched her grow in many unexpected ways.

Dear Sweet Girl,

Turning 8 was the year of finding your brave!

I loved watching you turn seven, my kite girl. I loved watching you become this new version of yourself, stretching out and learning to soar. Seven was glorious. I really didn’t want it to end.

Yet, I feel that way every year, and every year you amaze me even more, and I think, no, this, this is the year I want to freeze her.

But the truth is, even if I were given the magical power to freeze you at an age, I don’t think I could ever bring myself to use it. It’s too much fun to see what you’ll do next, who you might become.

When you turned seven, I thought you had already outgrown all your babyness, but I look back at the early days of seven, and still see the round, baby cheeks that have all but disappeared. And my heart is a little sad to see those baby days ending. While you still cling to me from time to time, the future is coming in which you won’t run into my arms with every hurt or joy or crazy dream.

But I pray we’ve built a foundation in which you will always feel you can come to me, even when you’ve outgrown my lap.

I was shocked by how much you sprang up this year! You lost your sweet baby belly and became so incredibly slim. Your long, powerful legs carried you many places this year, but your brave heart took you on new journeys.

Being afraid of getting hurt has defined you since your first steps.

While you have always had a brave streak in some areas, you have struggled to overcome the fear of falling down, scraping your knees, or getting hurt.

You were so afraid that we would pull loose teeth that you let one become SO loose it was extricated in the Chinese buffet chocolate pudding! You got so emotional over losing a tooth in a restaurant. I had to keep reassuring you that being toothless and losing teeth is just part of seven.

Seven was a rough year for eating! You were missing so many teeth that we had to develop creative strategies for chewing!

But this year you began finding your brave.

Somewhere in the months following the pudding incident, something changed. You were trying to learn to ride your older brother’s skateboard, a rip-stick, but were so terrified to fall that you couldn’t push past it.

Daddy saw you sitting on the ground, frustrated, sweaty, crying. When you grumbled that you were never going to be able to learn this, he answered, “When babies are learning to walk, they fall down – a lot. Do they decide walking isn’t for me and quit trying?” You answered a quiet no, and began to change your attitude.

Five minutes later he came inside, but you didn’t. You rode that rip-stick the rest of the day. Even after falling down, you brushed yourself off and kept trying. We had to force you to come inside when the streetlights came on.

Once, you fell while riding your bike and didn’t even come home! We only noticed the scrapes when the streetlights finally forced you inside.

Another way you found your bravery this year was on the back of a horse!

You became our cowgirl this year. For Christmas, we asked all the grandparents for money towards horseback riding lessons. Once the weather was warm enough for lessons, you started. You’ve ridden several different horses. Each one has tried and tested your resolve.

I love watching you find your fierce when a horse is being stubborn. My heart is happy and proud when I see my little slip of a girl bravely controlling this thousand pound animal. You’ve learned to take control and be calmly assertive when riding. While riding the horses is fun, I know you’ve learned just as much about mental toughness and bravery as riding.

Another way you became fierce this year was shooting your new compound bow. Daddy found you a great bow for your 7^th adoptiversary, but it took lots of work and practice to be able to even pull it back. Yet, you persevered. Eventually you were shooting Daddy’s target from across the yard. Your determination and strength amazes me.

I am constantly enthralled by your imagination and heart for others.

One of the most precious things you did this year was to give part of yourself away. When you were just four, you ached with sympathy over a friend’s son who had lost his hair to cancer. You wondered what the little girls with cancer do about losing their hair and set about to donate your hair.

Last December, we went together for our first salon day, and cut 12+ inches off both our hair! That day was so bittersweet as your mom who loved to play with your hair, but I was so proud of the God-honoring decision you had made to give sacrificially.

But one of my favorite milestones for you was spiritual.

This year you decided you wanted to be baptized. You’d been asking for a long time, but I felt like you were truly ready and Nana and your aunt, uncle, and cousin were able to be a part of celebrating this momentous occasion.

Not every child demonstrates the level of interest in God and the Bible that you have. You have always shown an understanding far beyond your years. You face many challenges with wisdom that can only come from God.

This year has already passed so quickly. You’re fully 8 now, four months in as I put the final touches on this letter, and the sad cruelty of life is that the more precious you realize time is, the faster it seems to go. This seems truer every year since we brought you home, but I continue to savor the everyday joys of watching you find your brave!

I love you to the moon and back! And more everyday as you grow and continue finding your brave!

Love, Mom