Our littlest girl is not so little anymore!
Last week Rose turned 6. We celebrated with several of her friends and a unicorn party. (Definitely our easiest theme so far. If you know our kids, you know they love a good birthday theme. This one only required a visit to the dollar store.)
Our Rose is bright and funny. She loves to make up a funny story or a new game to play with her toys. Almost any time I drop Rose off in a group of other kids – whether it’s at the park, at school, at soccer – she’ll greet me at the end by saying, “I made a new friend!” She won’t always know that new friend’s name but she’s always happy to meet new people and she gets along with a wide variety of other kids.
Rosie loves cuddling up to read a story together and is starting to recognize many of the words on the page. Her favourite part of school is when they go outside. She is loving grade one and very excited to do calendar every day and to have her own planner. Rose is a girl of big emotions and Peter and I are sometimes left reeling as she swings from absolute sorrow over something that seems minor, back to joy and excitement. I love the way she dives in to things, be it friendships or feelings, and I love how affectionate and creative she is.
There are 2 Bible verses that I’ve shared before that always remind me of Rose. The first is one that I prayed over her often when I was pregnant and then that I rejoiced over her with after she was born:
For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition that I made to Him.
1 Samuel 1:27
and
The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.
Isaiah 35:1
Our Rose is truly a gift that blossomed in a dark place. I am so grateful that I get to be her mom.
Karissa Reads Books 
How awesome! What a great way to start my day – with great news about Rose! Happy Birthday, dear one. What a joy! What a blessing! Your family loves you so much that they did this just for you!
I swear I remember a time with you before Rose, but I can’t remember her being born…. Does this sound accurate?
I and my niece Mariam are both big emotions people. It’s exhausting. Even if we’re mad at you, we don’t want you to go away. It’s very confusing.
I’ve definitely been blogging longer than Rose was alive so I can imagine you’ve been around that long! I did blog about her birth but I didn’t really talk about my pregnancy here (or anywhere).
That describes Rose exactly which is an interesting challenge for the rest of the family who need to take time alone to recover! I especially am Rose’s comfort person and so I am learning to better control my own reactions so that I can be there for her.
Ahhhhh, so you had a “surprise baby” in the sense that I didn’t realize you were pregnant and then there was a baby. Several people from my MFA program did that, except they were the kind of people who didn’t even appear to like kids, so it was a different kind of surprise for me.
Well, not a surprise to me, haha, but yes. We told a few people early on but otherwise never announced it. I remember being glad it was a cold spring because I hid in big sweaters until summer time and then it was pretty obvious!
What a lovely post – happy birthday, Rose! That verse in Isaiah is one of my favourites as well (in fact the whole of Isaiah 35 is a favourite passage).
It’s such a beautiful and hope-filled passage!