July 30th

Lou and I were awake early on Gracie's 7th birthday. She was the next person to wake up and join us in my room.

We were able to give her some birthday love.

 We had a neighbor friend come over and swim while we babysat her for a while and then we were off to run some errands. We went to some restaurants to get free food for her birthday, played the water tower, and went to target. Grandma and grandpa Christensen gave her a gift card to target for her birthday. She was pretty excited about that. She was also pretty excited to wear the matching dresses that Grandma Huston made for her and Louise. 

She had $15 to spend at Target. When we walked in she grabbed three different things from the dollar bins and asked if she could get all of those. I told her she could get those and more, her face lit up. As we continued to walk through the store she found the movie Charlottes Web for five dollars and I told her she could also get that. She got it and was so excited about it. She told Joe they could watch it when we got home and I told her they could unless she changed her mind and decided to get something else. She said "I will never give up Charlottes Web". It wasn't too long after that we found the movie The Pirate Fairy. I knew she would want it so bad and but it was $20. I told her I was willing to give her five dollars but that she would have to put everything else back and it would be the only thing she could get. She became very somber and I could tell she didn't know what to do. She looked at me and said "I really want The Pirate Fairy but I really want Charlottes Web too". At that point William was asking me to come look at something on the lego isle so we went over there and as I was looking at what he was showing me I looked back and saw Gracie standing with a very sad face. I could tell she was trying to decide what to do I called her over to me and she just came and stood really close to my leg I put my arm around her and she began to sob. I told her that I didn't want to be sad that this was supposed to be a happy day and a happy thing. She still didn't say anything and just cried. After I held her tiny body for awhile feeling it shake from sobs, I told her that I would buy her The Pirate Fairy for her birthday present from me and she could still get all the other things she was planning on getting. It took her a minute to be able to smile fully but she gave me a hug and told me thank you multiple times that day. I was able to tell her later that one of the reasons I decided to get it for her (besides the fact that it was her birthday and I love her very much) was that she never whined or begged me to get it for her. She was just sad and trying to make a hard decision. I was very proud of her.

Also for her birthday she asked to go visit our dear friend Pam who is on hospice. We have gone to visit her nearly every day since Sunday even though she is unresponsive. She does slightly open her eyes when we come and talk to her, but she can't look at us or talk. The kids like tell her "hi" and sing her songs. After that we hurried home because Grandma and Grandpa wanted to bring by a cookie cake and do candles. 

While we were at a restaurant earlier in the day I said, "let's go around the table and all say something we love about Gracie." Joe thought I meant get up and walk around the table but since we were at a restaurant it wouldn't really work so we did it at home. Maybe we will have to make that a new tradition. We also looked at her baby pictures and talked about how happy we are that this little girl was born. I am so grateful for the privileged of being her mother.