Double Digits

This year is destined to make me feel really old. My youngest achieves double digit status today - ten years old! In several months, another child will reach the milestone of turning sixteen, followed one month later by her brother turning eighteen. Exactly two months later, another child will celebrate his thirteenth birthday and a few months later my eldest child will be twice as old as my youngest.

Alia has been counting down the days until her tenth birthday since the day after her ninth birthday. Leading up to her ninth birthday, she suggested we just skip nine and go right to ten. To say she's excited to be ten is a gross understatement. 

She has had a busy year. She found a passion for contemporary dance, spent two full weeks at Camp Calumet's Resident Camp where she sang and acted in the Drama Camp performance of Oliver Twist, talked her way into the cast of Epoch Arts Haunted House, and has dissected a pig heart. In the past year she has been diagnosed with hypermobility syndrome and started physical therapy. Alia co-taught a homeschool co-op class and helped with a refugee resettlement ministry by babysitting two year old Elin during classes and meetings and at various appointments. And so much more. 

Alia Quinn ... on your tenth birthday ... ten things I love about you:

I love...

1. your creativity.
2. your strength.
3. the way you easily make friends with anyone.
4. your sense of humor.
5. your self-confidence.
6. your patience with people.
7. the kindness you show everyone.
8. your willingness to try new things.
9. your persistence when learning something new.
10. the ways in which you live out your faith.

Happy 10!