7 Years. 4 Years. Forever.

Well, since I am just now beginning to play catch up on my blog I thought I'd start at the huge milestone that took place in November.

Althea turned seven years old.

Again, continuing to disobey our orders to stay small.
I always say that, but I really don't mind my kids getting older, because you can see how far they have come.

Especially this once timid, scared, uncertain little girl.
She now knows no stranger.
She is softening up to animals.  We all rejoice together when she sees a dog enter a room and doesn't scream in terror, or climb up Uncle Craig's back (the highest point in the room, ha!).  She has even been known to catch a critter or two and has gone to get the eggs from the chickens (with a chaperon of course).
She is THRIVING in school.
She is beginning to learn to face her fears and emotions instead of running from them.
She is working on confronting her hurt feelings instead of getting defensive (something I am learning right along WITH her, can I get an amen?!)

She still loves babies and Barbies.
She still loves learning new games.
She still loves to be the queen bee around the imagination circles.
She still squeals with delight whenever her daddy's car is seen pulling into the driveway.

Her favorite thing of all time is horses.
And since we are not going to be adding a horse to our Colony anytime soon she decided that having a pony themed birthday party would suffice.

I'm admittedly the WORST mom when it comes to birthday parties.
And throw the word "THEME" in there and I don't even make the list.

But this time I would say that I did a pretty good job:)
Except that I can't find half the pictures.  Like the ones of Laity with her friends and their adorable paintings.  But we're documenting what we've got anyway!

We invited just a handful of her favorite girls.

We ate a table full of snacks.

And we painted cute little duct tape name creations.  Too bad SOMEONE can't find those photos because I was pretty impressed with the outcome!  (These were originally going to be horse silhouettes but it didn't quite work the way I had hoped.  But whatever.)

And played games.

I think everyone had fun, including me:)

Now as I look back, just one day past 4 YEARS since Alethia stepped out onto American soil I can't help but be thankful for all that the Lord has done in our family with and THROUGH our Alethia Grace.

Our Truth and Grace.

Alethia,
Mommy and daddy are so grateful that God chose to place you in our family!  I pray that I will be a better mommy this year than last and that we can grow together as we both grow older.  I am so proud of the young lady you are becoming and pray that you will forever seek the heart of our great God!
Love, 
Mom