Dearest Lena,
You are becoming a young lady before our very eyes! What a year of growing you have had. This year you have become a book girl and we are often calling you to dinner from other worlds and lands. You love Pippi Longstocking and Nancy Drew currently and really enjoy history. You've become a violinist and joined the Playing Through History Band and continue in your piano studies. You have a special knack for french vocabulary and Shakespeare plays! You do not like math or copywriting but you are becoming a fine artist specializing in Narnian figures and flowers at the moment. One of my favorite things you did this year was begin newspaper articles for us with Emmie. The Chucklehead Papers appear at every birthday and delight us with homemade jokes and riddles. Perhaps your favorite place to be is swinging out back or creating concoctions in the mud kitchen. You are contemplative, tender, poetic and yet still a firecracker. It's been a difficult year and you've wrestled with hard things and asked hard questions. I'm so proud of you for seeking truth and beauty in all you do and I pray that you will always find your answers in Jesus. You are so dear to us, a beloved sister to Emmie and Phoebe, a cat whisperer, chicken mama and a newly minted gardener. We love you so.
