introducing: penelope.

Meet Penelope.

If you don't know her personally yet, you are missing out.  She is incredible.  I'm afraid I won't even be able to describe her adequately.

She is soft and compassionate.  She is tender-hearted towards people and animals.  She looks for ways to serve and care for others, and is especially good with babies.  She mostly spends her allowance on gifts for other people, and is a truly epic gift-giver.  She often spends her days making things to show her siblings how much she cares for them.  She delights in surprising the other kids by occasionally doing their chores for them, or making them a lunch she knows they'll like.

But she is also strong.  She is passionate and driven, and self-controlled.  She is a truth-speaker, and confessional about her own sin.  She is hungry for growth, and so incredibly wise.  I am just in awe of her maturity and depth, and she is an example for me in my own walk with Christ.

She is my right hand around the house.  I honestly don't know what I'd do without her.  She is quick to help me, and quick to cheer me up if I'm in a funk.  She is an absolute joy to be around - she's so witty and affectionate and intelligent.  She is responsible without resentment - she is so eager to help in whatever ways she can.

One thing I love about Penelope is that she's endlessly interested.  She's curious about, and engaged with, the world around her.  Her mind is almost superhuman in what it can comprehend, remember and form connections with.

She has big dreams for herself when she grows up: while she has so many different creative interests that I'm absolutely positive she'll pursue to excellence (cooking and baking, writing, playing and composing music, singing, dancing), the goal she talks most often about is farming.  She would love to operate an organic, humane, diversified farm, and sell the products she raises.  (At a discount for veterans, of course.)  She wants to marry someone who's also passionate about farming, and have a large family.

She brings so much joy, creativity, fun and curiosity into our lives.

My prayer for her is that she will continue to understand grace more and more deeply.  She is so incredibly hard on herself sometimes, and I pray she will always find comfort in Jesus' declaration that "It is finished."  She is enough - as she is, where she is - because she is wrapped up in and covered by the righteousness of Christ.  I pray she would be quick to believe God when he defines her identity.  I pray she would have the courage to stay both soft and strong as she grows.  I pray that I would never forget to tell her how much I respect her and take pride in her, and that she will find a husband who cherishes her and puts his full trust in her.  I pray she will be able to have all the kids she wants, and that I'd get the honor of watching her be a mother someday.

Penen, you are a gift.  You are so valuable and unique and precious to us.  What a bright spot you have been in our lives!