Dear Hope-love,

Thank you for bringing me a mud-pie today. As you brought it, I paused there in the kitchen and just watched you from the window. I loved how you carried it so carefully,  gracefully stepping over the sticks in the yard, wind whipping through your delicate strands of hair.

I remembered when I was a little girl like you. I had my play kitchen and my dirt and I can recall spending afternoons baking up a muddy feast. I didn’t know when I became a momma  how much joy would well up inside my chest as I relived those childhood memories through you.

And thank you, Hopey, for bringing your momma some spring. Thank you being the first to notice the crocus’ blooming this year and for running as fast as you could to tell me and then insisting that I follow you until I saw them. Stooped down and really saw them.

You are pure delight. You with the grubby fingers and the dessert still smudged on your cheeks and that gleam of light in your eyes.

Tonight when we were pulling out of the driveway, you wanted to make sure we remembered Samuel. And then you made sure I grabbed him some baby food and a spoon. You didn’t want me to forget the spoon. I had to laugh because you haven’t even been here all that long and you’re already helping us in such big ways.

You daily remind me of the purity of God’s heart. I’m just so thankful to Him for your beautiful, lovely, delightful, precious life.