Four

Clara creates her bear, "Samantha"

We celebrated Clara's 4th birthday at Build a Bear this past weekend. There were six little girls there and it was quite the noisy and energetic get together. Once they all arrived, Grace, our "party bear" helped them each to pick out the bear that they wanted to make. They had several choices and it took a few minutes of pondering before all six could make a final decision. Then, Grace had them all put their bears-to-be on their heads and they proceeded to march in a line, all around the store shouting at the top of their lungs, "Stuff my bear! Stuff my bear!" I think they all loved that part, getting to yell inside, and in a very public place no less! Next, they each went through a heart ceremony, which involved choosing a satin heart, rubbing the heart in their little hands to make it warm, rubbing on their legs to make it fast, rubbing it on their heads to make it smart, and then making a wish on the heart and stuffing it inside the bear. They all got to work the "stuffer" and push the pedal to stuff their bears to their own individual levels of fluffiness. Once all of the bears were stuffed and sewn together, they moved on to the fluff and brush stage. They all got to brush and clean up their little bears while fluffing them under these big air things, kind of like hair dryers. Next, it was on to the dressing phase! And here is where the fun began. Turn six little girls loose in a store jam packed with awesome outfits, shoes, hats, wigs, eyeglasses, p.j.s, etc and say..."pick one". A couple of the little girls knew right away what they wanted their bears to wear and were done in about 2 minutes with their selections. However....the other four had quite a time putting together just the right outfit, all the while having to work within their "budget"! It didn't help, of course, that four year old girls have NO CONCEPT whatsoever of what a budget is or how much things cost. But eventually, we managed to get all the bears stuffed, fluffed, and all dressed up. After we wrapped things up at the bear store, we headed to the food court for donuts and juice and presents. It was fun to watch all of them enjoy each other's company.

As I watched all of them laughing and playing and smiling, I was just struck by how blessed we are. How blessed we have been to have our little Clara these past four years. We had prayed and prayed for a little girl. And while she had a rough year of three...as she got closer to four, she has really been such a delight. She is girly, girly in every way. And she is so sweet and so eager to please. She loves children and craves their company constantly. She wants to be a ballerina when she grows up. She is simply a delight. It's hard to believe she's been with us for four years already. Before we know it, we'll be walking her down the aisle to the man of her dreams! But I try not to think about THAT too much. Right now, I just want to treasure the little girl. The sweet one who adores her mommy, loves her baby dolls, is her Daddy's little princess and the one who just fills my heart up to overflowing every time I look at her, just knowing she's mine. We are blessed to have this child. Blessed to be parents....and I thank God every day that he has allowed us the priviledge of being parents to our wonderful children.