September 26/27 with Emma

Saturday Night/Sunday:  It was a weird Saturday because I did NOT have Kaity this afternoon. She was out of town with her mom! Emma asked that I pick her up at 7PM, so I did just that. When we got over to my house, I reminded Emma that she had wanted to look for some pictures of herself that were prior to age 4.5 (the age she was when I began this blog!). So I got some containers out that I store in various parts of my house that are full of old pictures and memorabalia and we began to go through them.

I remember the above day like it was yesterday ... Emma's DELIGHT in the first snow that had fallen super early. Look at her dear face. I remember loving her so fiercely that I thought my heart would burst from it. How could I possibly contain the JOY I felt just being with this dear little person?

The picture of Emma and Chris (below) was taken AFTER we had taken them on the Coopersville/Marne train. I'm pretty sure the engineer hats were purchased around that time ... cuties!

This is a picture of Emma at Halloween--I believe she was FOUR. She was dressed up like Piglet (from Pooh). She was VERY pleased to be dressed as a PIG, her very favorite animal at that time.

And here she is playing with Pooh and Tigger--the first two puppets I ever bought. Emma has always enjoyed puppets. She was the reason I purchased PACO for pity's sake!

After an hour or more of looking through old pictures and separating out ones that Emma could take with her, we settled down to watch "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." It had been a very long time since we had seen the movie. I was super glad to watch a beautiful rendition of one of my favorite stories in the world. Hopefully, the next two weeks we'll watch the other two that I own. Disney never completed the series, which is regretable. They were doing a good job, but evidently there were budget issues. Sigh.

Sunday morning, we attended the 11:20 service at Calvary. Wonderful time of teaching and worship. So thankful to be there in person--which would not have happened without Emma telling me that she felt God wanted us there. Thank you for speaking to Emma, Father!

After church we sat at the lunch table and I listened as Emma talked. It was good practice in listening because Emma had a lot on her mind. I'm glad she was able to talk about those things.

Emma played the piano for a little while too. I was very glad she did! She has a natural love of music and a good amount of ability in understanding musical notes and rhythm. I hope very much that some day she has a piano of her own and will take lessons. She has beautiful hands for playing piano--or any instrument, for that matter.

We played with Matey for awhile too ... he puts himself out there, so it is unavoidable! 

At about mid-afternoon, I asked Emma to build me something with my magnet tiles ... and for the next few hours (!!) that's exactly what we did!

It was relaxing and fun to just sit and make stuff. Emma is an excellent builder!

Below is the train station (with ticket booth) Emma made, complete with railroad tracks and train!

Saturday night when I picked Emma up from Jesse, I sensed that she was uptight and angry--I hurt for her and was unsure how exactly our time together would go. So I breathed quite a bit of prayer to the Lord as I drove from her place to mine. I just asked that God would bless our time together and that He would help me be a good listener, and that Emma would relax, rest, and be refreshed deep inside. I think the Lord more than answered my prayer. In every way, I am so thankful for this time I was able to spend with Emma. God is SO good.