This Girl

I FINALLY finished Hallie's birthday post... four months late!  Whoops!  Life has been crazy hectic since September, and even more so since January.  I feel like it's slowed down a little now, so hopefully I can return to being a somewhat-regular blogger again!

This girl, this Hallie-Girl.

What can I say about this crazy girl?

This girl drives me absolutely crazy, yet keeps me sane.  All I ever wanted was to be a girl-mama, and this girl made that dream come true.  She turned my world upside-down.

(Not that she's girly, of course!  I wouldn't want anyone to get the wrong idea about this little sassafras.  Oh, she loves her princess toys and stuffed animals, but this girl can be more wild and noisy than both of her brothers.)


This girl, this Hallie-Girl.

What can I say about this beautiful girl?

I am constantly in awe of her confidence.  Regardless of what everyone else is doing, this girl has a persistent desire to be her own person.  Maybe it's because she is surrounded by boys, maybe it's because she's like her mama and likes doing things counter-flow.  Either way, this girl is one of a kind.

(When every other girl on the planet was asking for Frozen birthday parties, this girl wanted Katerina Kitty Cat, from Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood.  Do you know how difficult it is to plan a Katerina birthday party?  Very.  So Mama decided to go with Frozen.)

This girl is (finally) starting to get along with her brothers, using her extraordinary imagination for good instead of torture (haha).  Watching the three of them play together makes my heart happy.  This girl is always eager to help, eager to mother, eager to serve.


This girl, this Hallie-Girl.

What can I say about this spicy girl?

This girl is quirky, dramatic, sassy, and loud.  She's got these eyes that are always lit up with some sort of mischief.  These eyes with a color so hard to describe, I just call them "Hallie eyes."  When asked what color they are, she has been known to respond with "sparkly!"

This girl is bold.  This girl is risky.  This girl punctuates everything with an exclamation point.  This girl is always finding that line she isn't supposed to cross and walking it like a tight-rope (gets that from her Daddy).

This girl knows how to push all my buttons, but she's always pushing me to be a better mama, a better person. This girl is my refiner, the one who exposes my flaws so that I can bring them to the Lord.


This girl, this Hallie-Girl.

What can I say about her?

She's a rare jewel, a unique gift, and one that I am thankful for every single day.

Happy birthday, Wildflower... even if this post is four months late!

Some of my favorite pictures of your third year + fourth winter.

Swinging is STILL your favorite thing to do.

You've turned into quite the Daddy's Girl and I couldn't be happier.

My beauty.

You're my snuggliest! 

Birthday ice cream date with Daddy.

You are breathtaking!

Our Story -- Part 5

Ahh, so sorry it's been six whole months since I've updated this!  To be honest, I just ran out of steam and inspiration.  Good thing for y'all it's our seventh anniversary today and celebrating gave me a little bit of extra inspiration. ;)

PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4

It was now October, and with October came the annual PKMK retreat for our district, a retreat I'd been attending since seventh grade and a weekend I looked forward to more than anything else all year.  (PKMK stands for Pastors' Kids & Missionaries' Kids.)

Our youth pastor drove us up, but had to be back at church on Sunday, so guess who was asked to come pick me and my siblings up on Sunday?  Yeah, that's right.  Drew.  There weren't many people who could drive that Morrow bus, haha.

Needless to say, the ride home was a long one.  Drew was his typical friendly annoying self, chatting up my siblings and trying to engage me in conversation, as usual.  I rebuffed all attempts, as usual.

My parents were out of town attending a wedding and all my siblings were staying with friends, so when we got back to Williamsburg, Drew went around dropping them all off.  I was "house sitting" for my parents and, as Drew had our van, it made sense to drop me off last.

When we got to my house, he offered to help me bring in my bag and a couple other things that had been left in the van.  But then when he was done, he just casually plopped down on the couch.  Clearly the guy had been invited over for Sunday lunch a few too many times.  I wanted to hint that I was tired, that I had a friend coming over to stay with me, that I wanted him to leave, but I didn't.

Finally, after a few (long and awkward) minutes passed, he spoke.

"Can I tell you something without it being weird?"

Because prefacing it like that definitely won't make it weird...?

"I guess?"  I replied, although it's possible that I only nodded.  I had a strange feeling that I knew what was coming.  Sure enough...

"I, uh... I have feelings for you.  Is that weird?"

Weird?  Nooooo!  (Sarcasm.)  I mean, there was only an almost-eight year age gap.  There was only the fact that I'd been trying to send the message for about three months now that I was not interested even in being friends.  He was only the weirdest guy I knew (not that I knew a lot).

"Yeah.  That's weird."  I shrugged, struggling to remain calm and indifferent on the outside, hoping my face wasn't turning bright red.  Inside, I was freaking out.

Silence fell.  Awkward silence.

Then Drew stood up.  "Well... sorry.  I can go now."

I could tell he wanted me to say something else, but my mind had completely shut down.  Although I'd kind of-sort of been expecting him to say something like this, it still felt completely out of the blue.  I couldn't think, much less talk.  So I didn't.  I just nodded.  And he left.

A few days later, I got an email from him, basically telling me he was sorry and he really didn't want things to be awkward between us.  We were friends, after all, and saw each other a couple times a week at church events.

But it was awkward, I told him.  And I didn't know how to make it not.

For a few months, things were weird.  He would come over for Sunday lunch and I would eat and then go hide in my room.  He started tutoring Destiny in math and I take my homework from the kitchen table to hide in my room.  He'd come over for a movie and -- you guessed it -- I'd hide in my room!

Eventually, the awkwardness started to go away, and we started becoming friends again.  But that's a continuation for another day. ;)

. . . to be continued . . .

Stay tuned!  I promise it won't be another six months before I write again!