Dear Scooter......

Dear Scooter,

You are three years old!!  We had a great birthday party.  We went to Jump Zone with all of your new friends and came home to eat the cup cakes you baked!!  I took you shopping and you picked out your very own birthday dress which you wore for three days straight including to bed. Then we met Big and Janet at the Aqaurium and they brought you two BIG surprises, Madison and Carson!!  It was so much fun!  You ran through that aqaurium loving every second of their attention even more than you loved the fish.  Overall I would say it was a great 3rd birthday.  Daddy and I did not get you an actual present because you got plenty from everyone else.  But I wanted to write to you and tell you a little bit about who you are and what we wish for you. 

At three years old you are more like an 8 year old.  You are well spoken and funny.  You have good manners and you are polite.  You eat well, you play well and you are a lot of fun to be around.  You are grown up for your age in a lot of ways.  I am not sure if that is our fault or just your spirit but regardless it makes you one of my very best friends.  Truthfully there are days that I am not sure I would have gotten through without you.  You take care of me as much as I take of you.  You have a big heart and a great memory.  You love to make us proud and to make us feel good.  You have a little of me in you and a lot of your daddy, a combination I would say is just about right for a lot of fun and success.  You have an old spirit.  You are wise beyond your years and very aware of what is going on around you.  You read people well and you don't trust right away. Daddy and I are very proud of you and pray everyday that we are letting you have a lot of fun but raising you to be the young lady that we know you can be.

I can promise you we are not going to get it right every time, we have already made plenty of mistakes.  We are so blessed that you have a forgiving heart and wake up the next day loving us just as much!  We pray for your future, for the friends that you make, for the choices that you make.  We pray for your health and for strength in your little body.  We pray for wisdom in teaching you right from wrong and the consequences that come with what you choose.  We plead with God to fill us with the knowledge that we need to protect you from the mistakes that we have made and to lead you on the path to make the wise choice.  We watch you grow and listen to you talk and see what we are doing right and what we are doing wrong all the time thanking Jesus that the right outweigh the wrong for now. 

We know there will be a time when your choices are yours to make, not ours.  A time when protecting you is more about praying than it is about leading.  A time when you don't ask what we think before you jump.  And we pray that all of the laughter and tears and moments and teaching and leading fills that heart of yours at those times.  There will be moments that you fall and we will pick you up, everytime.  Not because you deserve it but because we love you like Jesus loves us and you will always receive grace from us as we do from Him. 

Scooter, the last three years went by like a long month of winter.  The moments seemed to last forever, but the years went by with a blink.  All I can imagine is that one day I am going to wake up and you are going to be 10, 20, 25.  You won't crawl in my bed in the middle of the night, you won't need me to make your breakfast, I won't need me to kiss your boo boo's away, I won't need to be there to help you dress or tell you which shoe goes on which foot and I will miss every single one of those things more than you will ever understand.  Well at least until you are a mom, and then you will understand perfectly.

Sweet Kathryne Elaine, you have blessed us more than you will ever know.  I still remember being pregnant with you and getting on my knees in the bathroom stall  in that Buckhead high rise begging God to let me keep you.  Pleading with him to keep you healthy and protect me from the miscarriage that seemed so close in that first three months.  I remember laying next to your daddy at night and falling asleep with his hand on my belly praying over you.  We wanted you so badly.  We told the Lord if you were the only one we ever got you would be enough.  You little sister proved us wrong. ;)  But my sweet Scooter, you are more than enough.  You are a precious gift that we are so humbled by daily.  Our Lord has clearly forgiven us for all of our sins, and you my sweet baby girl, are living proof of that. 

Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

This is the best advice that we can give you my sweet girl.  We can teach you and lead you and help you and raise you but if you live your life based on this scripture you will be more successful than we could ever hope for.  I pray that as you grow you understand that more and more.  For now, we will enjoy your sweet little prayers every night that end with "prayers to Jesus amen". 

Happy Birthday Kathryne Elaine Hall,
We love you bigger than the whole sky!!
Mama, Daddy and Sissy