August 16 Emma is 21

Wednesday:  

[I will post this at a later date. The tentative plan is that Emma and I are going to get together this weekend to celebrate her birthday. I am surely looking forward to it!]

Later ...

It's now Monday, August 21. I didn't get to see Emma on her birthday. Her gifts were wrapped and placed on her bed waiting for her. I was excited to watch her open them--I always like that part best--but I didn't get to do that this year. 

Memo to self: this is NOT about YOU!

I'm not sure what happened exactly--except that I was in and out of the house quite a bit Friday and Saturday during the day. At about 3:30 on Saturday, I arrived here with Kaity, but had gone to the mailbox to check for mail before coming inside. There was a piece of mail for Emma, so I opened up the door to her room to put it inside, and ... then I noticed that her gifts were gone. My heart sank ... like to the floor. Somehow I had missed her coming and going. I did send her a text at 1:00 in the morning on the 16th with a birthday greeting, but Emma had mentioned that she would come this weekend and perhaps we could hang out. I thought we would do her gifts then. Evidently, I thought incorrectly.

Here is the card I designed for her this year. These pictures are from back in 2020 when we had gone over to the Cascade Dam to walk around for a bit.

I have always loved Psalm 139. The fact that God designed each of us personally means so much to me. The song on the inside is called "I Am Not My Own" by Keith and Kristyn Getty. I only used the first verse on Emma's card (I love that line: "Before I drew a breath, I was loved and known"), but here is the rest of it:

Verse Two: "My body is a temple of the Living God, I'll worship in this house that His blood has bought. As I bear His image, oh may I not profane the holiness I hold in this earthly frame."

Chorus:  "I belong to the Lord, oh I am not my own. I belong to the Lord, I am not my own. I will honor Him for this I know--I belong to the Lord, I am not my own."

Verse Three: "And if He has redeemed me, I am not my own. The measure of my worth is His love alone. He declares my standing, and He declares my state; so I will know myself by the name He gave."

Verse Four: "I am not my own and now my heart is free. O Maker come and make what You will of me. There is nothing broken that You cannot repair; so Lord, I leave my life in Your loving care."

I love this song so much. It's such a confession of our helplessness in the face of our sin and our desire to be made new. It's wonderful to know that His love covers everything that has gone wrong in our lives--so I pray this for Emma as well. I love her so much.

I ordered some stuff from Emma's Amazon list (which is super helpful since I don't have to play guessing games about what she really wants), and then I made her a book. The crazy thing about the book was this--I began working on it WAY too late. I really REALLY wanted it to be done in time for her birthday (and it WAS!). However, there is a pretty big three year gap in the book because years 2013, 2014 and 2015 photographs are on a different hard drive and I did not retrieve those years. As it was, I think I ended up with more than 60 pages and close to 300 pictures. I loved working on this little 8 x 8 book. I loved looking back and remembering . . .

Front Cover:

Example of some of the pages:

This is where the HUGE GAP comes in--between 2013 and 2015 ...

I sorted through 100's of photos and had to keep narrowing them down so that I could reasonably fit them into one book--about 50 hours later, I had the book finished. The pictures above represent a page each in the book--and the ones posted here are just some of the finished product. I ordered TWO copies, so that I could keep one here with me and look at it whenever I want! I love remembering these times with Emma. 

So, dear granddaughter--please know that you are loved. HAPPY TWENTY-ONE! I pray for His loving care over your life. You are precious to me.