Blessed Birthday Sarah!

I have so much thoughts and words to write about our precious first born - she is without a doubt God's blessing to me and Daniel and to the family. And I don't deserve to have a daughter like her...apart from God's grace. Dear Sarah makes me laugh, smile and ponder about God's work of miracle and she blesses my faint heart. That is not to say that she is without faults. She does go into her frenzied excitement, her spates of disobedience and her flares of tantrums, but I think she does much better than her mommy in all these areas:)

Smiles for Everyone

Sarah has a smile for everyone - even during the first waking moments of her long night sleep. She would smile so sweetly at me and kiss me every morning. Sometimes, I could feel her stroke my head and at times, she would imitate her Daddy and try to massage me. God has comforted me much through little Sarah. Sarah knows when I am upset with her and pleads with me, "Mommy, don't be sad with me." That would make me feel so sorry that I even got upset with her. 

Sensitive

Sarah is truly a unique little girl who is very sensitive. She needed to understand that going to BSF toddlers' class was not a permanent separation from her mommy and that her mommy still loves her very much. I admitted that I struggled in this area. I struggled between obligating with the many 'experienced' nursery teachers who told me that my kid would grow out of of the crying phase and all I had to do was to endure the crying, and between a God-given understanding of my own daughter. The understanding I had of Sarah as I observed and grew with her was that she was acutely aware of her surroundings and she needed to understand her surroundings. She wasn't to be "conned" into doing what the adults wanted her to do. And I resisted the idea of letting my child grow into something simply because she just got tired of fighting it. There has got to be a better way of education and learning. But she simply needed time to accept this reality of life - It was just time that she needed. And truly, when the day came for Samuel to go to BSF, Sarah trodded confidently into her class and waved goodbye to me. I remembered one teacher asking, "What did you do?" I could have boasted and said I trained her and disciplined her...haha, but I knew down deep that I did nothing. But to give her space and time. 

Slapstick

Sarah is so very slapstick sometimes that I secretly smile because I know where that slapstick-ness comes from. Just a couple of days ago, she decided it was cool to wear different shoes. One crocs on her right and sandals on her left. I know not where she comes up with these inspirations but I like the free spirit in her  and in a small way, I am thrilled that she is learning that it is ok to question why things are done the way they are. I only hope God would give me the wisdom and patience to guide her learnings and questionings.

Singing

Sarah loves to sing and especially songs of her own creation. It's funny to hear her put words into her own tunes and hear the secret messages in them. And just the other day, she went seamlessly from ABC song to Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars only to educate her Daddy that these two songs are of the same tune. Of course, she has her favourite and she particularly likes Libera, the angelic boys choir and so does the rest of her family now. Sarah also loves to draw and has a great spatial view of things and she has done remarkably in her representation of life and animals. I will post pictures of her black drawing book soon. She can count deliberately nowadays and she does it pretty well, counting anything and everything. 

Still, somethings never change. Our Sarah continues to be a playground maniac and she has a very sweet tooth. 

I do not deny that I am very proud of Sarah...she is really a wonderful blessing. Not perfect,  but just close to perfect for me, Daniel, Samuel and the family.