Anna

On Friday Tom, Mae, & I got to eat at Anna's Thankgiving feast at school. She was so excited & silly the whole time - I think she loved getting to show off her sweet little friends to us. The picture of the four of us blurred, but I loved this one of the girls.

Just to document a few other Anna moments of late... she took part in the Lord's Supper at church weekend before last for the first time. She has been asking to for a while, and we did some study on it, prayed about it, and got some wise advice from the Hatchetts on our retreat a couple of weeks ago. When I asked Anna why she wanted to participate she answered, "Because I love God and want everyone to see that I do". I kind of expected her to say that she wanted a snack or because other kids were doing it in Saturday night worship time. I know that as she grows in her faith it will mean even more to her, but it was sweet to hear these first baby steps of faith. She was in "adult" service with us that week because of a consequence (long story), but it turned into a blessing to watch how she can maturely sing, follow along with scripture references, reverently pray, and then to watch her take communion for the first time.

Another area of growing up that we've seen lately is her willingness to apologize without prompting. This has been challenging for her, mostly we have to drag a mumbled "sorry" out of her. For the last couple of weeks we've gone back to having her copy scripture verses for areas that she needs to work on in that moment (about respect, honor, & self control of her words). The last several times she has written letters to me on her own like the one below apologizing & asking for forgiveness. So sweet! This translates, "I'm sorry for talking rudely. Will you forgive me? Thank you. Love Anna." I love how she does the "write yes or no" part at the bottom. :)

The last thing I have to document about our growing girl is how amazing it is to see what they are learning in school. As a first grader, I thought we'd be memorizing math facts & muddling through simple books, so I've been so shocked by the level of work she brings home. She is reading chapter books with complicated vocabulary & learning upper level math. My family has really gotten a kick out of one of her recent math homework activities, so I'm writing it down to remember. First, they had to draw a quadrilateral & a trapezoid (do I even have those spelled right?!), then they were asked, "How many vertices does a quadrilateral have?" Oh my. I had to really think about that one, but Anna knew off the top of her head. She is going to have me outsmarted by third grade!