Three

Peregrine just turned three. It's hard for me to believe that he's been in our lives for that long. While we have some moments that seem like they'll never end, overall the time has gone by so quickly. I look back at pictures of him as a baby, fresh and new in this world, helpless, vulnerable, tiny. And now he's so big, so full of energy and ideas, opinions and questions. He listens with rapt attention when we read to him or tell him stories and at other times I would think he was deaf if I didn't know better! (Yep, usually when I'm telling him to do something he doesn't particularly feel like doing.) His smile and his big round eyes are enough to melt my heart and it seems that I can be pulling out my hair one minute and dissolving in sweet laughter with him the next. On one hand he's bursting with curiosity about things and on the other he thinks he's got it all figured out and will contradict everything I say! He loves to "help with me" when I'm cooking or working on something and is eager to learn and explore the world around him. He likes to pretend he's characters from different stories and he usually has a role for me to play too- if he calls me "Mother" then I know he's playing Francis and if he comes out with his crown on then we're Babar and Celeste, King and Queen of the elephants! I find it hard to keep up though as he can go through several of these characters in a day- or an hour! He has begun to make up stories to tell us, some that have actually happened and others that are pulled from his imagination. And he loves to listen to our stories of things we've done and places we've been.
Wow. He's learned a lot in three years. And he's so eager to learn and experience more. I long to give him a happy childhood filled with love and wonder and discovery. But there are so many things that we have no control over, and I battle the fears and what-ifs constantly. But he's not really ours. He's in far bigger and better hands than our feeble human ones. And this is our greatest hope for our boy: that he will grasp the hand of the One who is holding him and give his heart to the One who knit him together. (And he is fearfully and wonderfully made!) And so, beyond the ABCs and the 123s, and learning about bugs and seasons and rivers, we want to introduce Him to the Creator of all these things, the One who holds it all together and who holds us tightly in His hands.
So happy birthday to my sweet boy, and may you someday receive the Greatest Gift of all.