happy birthday to caroline--and to our blog

It's hard to believe it's been a whole year since we started this blog.  I've written waaaaaay less than I planned to, but I guess that having posted some is better than nothing.  One of the things that I've most enjoyed is the chance to hear back from friends who have read the blog and have connected with us, even when we are many miles (and time zones) away.  In our age of quick texts and emails, it's a joy to sit down and reflect on the endless blessings that fill our every day.  Here's to more regular and frequent blogging in the coming year.

And here's to a very happy birthday to our sweet Caroline, who turned 6 today.  It was a bit of an unusual birthday, since she spent almost 12 hours of it strapped into her car seat.

Having finished our wonderful four months of mission formation time in Los Angeles, we just this evening completed the 1600 mile road trip from there to my parents' home in south Louisiana...in three days.  While the trip out to L.A. in January was filled with happy reunions and a leisurely pace, this drive was all business: we started early each day, we visited no one, we stayed in hotels for two nights, we packed lunches that we ate at rest stops.  But despite the determined pace of our travels, we still took time to celebrate our precious baby girl and mark the fact that she has traversed into another year of her beautiful life.

Yesterday morning, while we waited for Daddy to check us out of the hotel and finish packing up our very-packed minivan, Caroline had the opportunity for a Skype date with my parents and youngest sister, who are in Paris!  I love when technology gifts us with quality time that we could have only dreamed of when we kids.

Last night, after a long day's drive and a two-hour time loss, we stopped at a really nice hotel in West Texas and enjoyed a fun family swim in the warm and relaxing indoor pool, followed by yummy Mexican food in our room.  Simple pleasures, but oh, so appreciated.

And this morning, after a feast of a breakfast, we celebrated our birthday girl with a few gifts and honored her throughout the day.

We also reminded her, on more than a couple of occasions, of the universal truth that once you are six, whining is no longer an acceptable form of communication.  This has been one of those little irritations that seem to become even more apparent in times of stress and change, so we are doing everything we can to move her along through this (hopefully) temporary stage.  While I would love to believe that positive reinforcement of better methods of speech will magically erase the scourge of whining from our lives, my hunch is that this will be an ongoing work in progress...just like the rest of us.

And after all the driving and phone-calling (and texting and napping and reading and car gaming and redirecting) and anticipating, we pulled into my parents' driveway this evening for lots of love and welcoming hugs.

All in all, I think, not a such a bad way to begin Caroline's new year :)

Happy birthday, our spunky, chatty, strong, smiley, creative, spectacularly-loving six-year old Caroline!