Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!!!

Dear Hattie,
Can it possibly be that you are four years old? The calender says that it's true ... but how can that be when it was just yesterday that you came into our lives? How can that sweet, but hurting baby girl be a four year old preschooler? Where has the time gone? How can I get it back? Everyday you get a little more independent and slip a bit further away from being the baby that needed me so much.



And everyday I am prouder of you, more in love with you and so much happier to be your Mom.
I knew you were sent from God to be my child the first time I held you in my arms. From that moment on you had my heart. I was your Mommy and would go to the ends of the earth for you. I fell in love with you in that moment and that love has not stopped growing ever since.




I have watched you grow from a scared, scarred, angry, hurting, lost little baby who would growl and bite on things in anger (which was completely justified) and frustration into a fun, funny, imaginative, creative, loving, sweet, smart, beautiful big girl in what seems to be such a short time. I am so proud of the girl you have become and the young lady you are becoming. You are brilliant - so smart with letters, numbers, animals and pixar movie & Nickelodeon characters!! You are such a sweet big sister - I am pretty sure that you are Sophie's favorite person in the world. You are getting to be such a loving and SOCIAL girl - this from the girl who, just over a year ago, would close herself off from the rest of the world in any type of social situation. You are becoming such a talker, telling us more and more of what you need and want and sometimes even what you are feeling... I know that that is not easy for you and I am so proud of you for trying so hard. You are absolutely hilarious and I can tell that you like to make people laugh and feel good, I love that about you!



I love snuggling with you when you first get up in the morning and right before bed. I love the way that you won't take a bite of your food til after we have prayed for it. I love the way that you run to the door when Daddy gets home from work. I love the way that you have to know where Sophie is at all times and won't let her out of your sight when there is someone new around. I love the way you say "I love you". I love the way you call me "Mama" for a couple of days after watching the Tigger Movie ('cause Roo calls Kanga "Mama", not "Mommy"). I love the way you stand at the window watching for the bus in the morning and then run down the driveway to climb in. I love the way you say "fishy, fishy, fishy" every morning when I feed the fish - and how you sometimes even hug the tank and tell them good morning! I love reading bed time stories and how we have read your Bible so many times that you have it memorized and KNOW if I say it wrong or have missed a page! Pretty much, I just love YOU - everything about you!



If I could, I would take away every bit of the pain and sorrow that you suffered before coming into our world. I would open your mind and help you to talk and share and tell me everything about your day and what is on your heart. But I would never change, even for a second, who and what you are. You are God's perfect creation and I love you completely, just the way that you are!
I am so vey much in love with you. And I am soooooo very happy that God made me your Mommy.
Happy Birthday sweet girl, I love you!
Love, Your Mommy