A Birthday Letter to Konner

A birthday letter to my son, Konner . . .

Dear Konner,

Today you are six years old. My baby is getting bigger, taller, faster every day.
Let me make a list of your current ailments:

1) You've got a yucky cough. I'm going to need to take you to the doctor tomorrow because your ears are starting to bother you. Today, I gave you Tylenol twice, bubblegum chewables, four instead of three because you're six now. Your nose is very goopy.

2) Your middle toe on your left foot hurts sometimes. You dislocated it last month. How does someone dislocate a middle toe? I don't know, but you figured out how.

3) The side of your face is scabbed over from a burn you received from fireworks from New Year's Eve. You were walking past Keri Lynn's sparkler and burning ash fell on your face. I think you'll heal just fine, but you look like you had an argument with the mean side of some asphalt and the asphalt won.

4) You've got some more scabs on your hand from a fall.

5) Dirt is forever swirling around you -- like Pig Pen in the Peanuts comic strip.

In short, you look like an orphan.

When I tease you about it, you roll your eyes and say, "Mo-om!"

But you really do look like an orphan. You didn't wear underwear for most of the day because it was too much of a bother to find some. Thank goodness modesty has kicked in so that you at least had pants on! I'm lucky if I can get shoes on you before you go play outside. It could be near freezing, and there you are barefoot playing in the mud in the back, snot stuck all around your face along with all of the dirt, scabs and bruises all over your body. A true boy.

Konner, you are such a sweet boy. I have always been able to count on you for the sweetest kisses on both my cheeks, snot and all. I can even get you to sit on my lap and cuddle, but I've noticed that it's a little less as the weeks and months go by. Too soon those precious little boy times will be over, but I'll have to get used to that because that means that you're growing up to be the man you're supposed to be.

You are a loner. You are independent. If you want to do something your way, you'll go ahead and do it no matter what anyone else says. If someone can't hear you, you get REALLY loud. Otherwise, you don't say much of anything at all. Kade does enough talking for the both of you, and that's fine with you, as long as you go along with it.

We have a joke, you and I. When everyone piles into the car, I count heads. When I get to you, I say, "Is Konner here?"

And you say, "I'm not here! I'm in the house watching TV!" or you'll come up with some other activity, "I'm not here! I'm playing in the back!"

We both think it's so funny!

You are the only one left in our family who has not made a formal commitment to the Lord, but you're young yet. It will come in due time. But when you pray, your heart seeks the Lord. You pray for "the whole wide world" so that you don't forget anything.

I've been studying the book of Daniel lately, so my prayer for you, Konner, is that the Lord will see you, like Daniel, as "a man of high esteem." What better commendation could there be than for God Almighty to think highly of His servant. May the Lord look on you, Konner, as you learn and grow, and see a man of high esteem.

With Love,
Mommy