To My 3-Year-Old

Dear Eva,

Oh My! Where has the time gone to? I mean, really! You are officially 3 years old. I can remember, just like it was yesterday, when Mama and Daddy flew to Ethiopia for the first time to meet you. It was just a few days before your first birthday. We tried to celebrate the best way we knew; we got you a cute outfit and Daddy brought you a Hostess cupcake. He just KNEW that you would take to the sweet, sugary taste of it. Wrong!! You wanted nothing to do with it or us. You scraped that cupcake right off your tongue and cried the whole time.

Fast forward 2 years: I can hardly believe you are that same little one that we held back in Ethiopia. Where do I begin to talk about how amazingly fabulous you are? You are so smart and determined and independent. Your personality is like a bright light that shines in a room. All anyone has to do is be in a room with you for 10 minutes and they can see your energy, attitude, and spunk! Your beauty truly radiates from the inside out.

So what are you into lately? You still like Doc McStuffins, but lately you’re all about Tiana and the Princess and the Frog. You can recite practically the whole story, and when I try to help, you tell me I’m wrong and correct me. You still like the color purple, but every so often you’ll choose the color blue also. You still love to eat. You’re always hungry!! And now candy is assumed to be one of the main meals of the day. When we go out to eat Ethiopian, you know that’s where to get injera…and you love it!

I don’t know where to begin on describing how smart you are. You hear every conversation going on around you and know right where to chime in. You can retell something that has happened weeks ago….with all of the drama and hand gestures as if it had just happened. You are such a whiz with your colors and numbers and everything. You are the one who says the blessing at dinner, and at bedtime you say the prayer all by yourself. You amaze me. Should a 3 year old know this much?

Fashion! Can we talk about fashion for a minute? What a little fashion plate you are. You want things to match...shoes, jewelry, hair accessories. You’re not into purses yet, but I know when that time comes, that will become part of the fashion as well. You are quick to remind me that crocs are not shoes and flip-flops are not sandals.

For all the things that I’ve tried to show you, teach you, discipline you in, it is only a speck to what God has done. God has truly done an awesome work in you and He’s not done yet. I can only be excited with anticipation about all of the things that you will learn in this next year. What will I need to teach you? What will you need to teach me? Will we both learn what we need to? Will one of us be more stubborn than the other? We’re so alike, you and I, in so many ways. I thank God everyday for the grace that He gives me for the challenges that we face. You are my precious girl. My big girl. My girl.

I love you always and always,
Mama