My dearest Sophia (favorite nicknames this year: Monkey, Sweetie. Sophia Girl)
Happy fifth birthday!
This year has been fun. You have continued to flourish at CKH and have a deep love for reading. You have taken to memorizing books, so you can “read” to your mom or I, or your brother. You love words, and are always asking “what do these letters spell?” or “what does that word mean?” You love to take out joke books and books full of puns from the library and laugh along to each, and have started to get into knock-knock jokes.
I can’t wait till you connect all the dots for reading and the world of reading on your own is opened for you. (Even if I worry slightly about being able to get your attention when you are deep into a book in the future).
This was a big year for our family as Jason was adopted and you formally welcomed him into our family at the party at church by singing your heart out in front of 150 people a song you came up with on the spot "Happy Adoption Day", sung to the tune of Happy Birthday. You have fiercely loved your brother into our family from day one and have not skipped a beat celebrating the good of adoption, even as you try to wrap your brain around the hard parts of adoption at the same time.
Your compassionate heart has been on full display this year as we welcomed numerous “foster friends” into our home for a weekend, or a week. My favorite quote on this topic was one you shared with Mom, that you wished we had more beds in our house so we could welcome more foster friends.
Your first instinct is often to get down on the floor to help a new friend in our home feel comfortable with toys or help feed them. You beam with pride when you tell your mom and I that you now classify as a helper and not a kid. Thank you for those moments, and we look forward to seeing that helper mentality grow with age.
When you were born, I remember looking forward to the day that we could have full conversations about every day things. Those days are here. And driving in the car is often a great chance to hear your thoughts and questions. For example, while driving the other day you asked how medics were able to help sick people in the ambulance while it was moving. We then proceeded to have a 10+ minute conversation about different situations of sick people of varying ages and what medics would have to do for each while driving to the hospital and how they would do that.
You often ask to play car games or sing songs in the car, and love time with any extended family. It is only when your mom and I are alone that we realize how much of our daily conversations involve your participation. You are all in.
You take an "all of the above approach" to life. When asked what you like best, and are provided a list to pick from, you often say "all of them". When asked what activity you want to do, and are given options, you often say "all of them". It is this passion for life that we love most about you.
You run hard, play hard, love hard, negotiate hard, and want to do “just one more” and try it all almost every day. You are fiercely (and stubbornly) independent at times, but still ask to sit in my lap to read books (and I will never turn you down for that).
You have internalized many of the truths about Jesus this year, and I so enjoy hearing you make sense of the world through that lens. And I am so grateful for so many in our church family that have loved you well this year.
Have a great sixth year, as the fifth was truly fulfilling.
Love,
Daddy
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