So Much Like Me

Today is my Anna's birthday.

I named her Anna because she was born a few days after Christmas. When Mary and Joseph took Baby Jesus to the temple, they met a devote woman, named Anna, who spent her days serving the Lord in the temple. Anna praised the Lord for blessing her with the gift of seeing her Messiah.

People have always said I was a lot like my mother. The resemblance has been passed down to Anna. I'm sure she has mixed emotions of being like her grandmother and mother.

Anna has always been my storyteller. From the time she could walk, she played house with her dolls. She didn't like people to watch, so I made a little "room" behind the recliner in the corner of the room. I loved to pause in my housework and listen in as she talked with her dolls.

When she could draw people, they were never just standing there. They were dancing or jumping or doing something. She spent hours and pages of paper making stories with pictures.

Her teachers sent notes home saying they loved reading her writing. Where most kids just wrote a simple boring sentence. (THE DOG PLAYS WITH A BALL.) Anna would run out of space telling a story about the dog disobeying his master and chewing up a toy.

During the years that we homeschooled, I once assigned a writing exercise of using our spelling words in a story. Anna wrote about a pet buffalo, which we entered in a contest at the library. It won an honorary ribbon!

Anna was always trying to be like her older sister, which often became frustrating to her. As she matured, she developed her own styles and talents. She is the best singer of our family and has sung in various shows and weddings and such. I love her soft way of accompanying herself on the guitar.

Now Anna is a wife of a marine and mother of a two year old, which is not easy, but she is growing stronger as a woman each day. Yes, Anna is much like me. We have similar tastes in clothes and decorating and way of thinking. I pray she'll grow to more than I will ever be.

I am proud of you, Anna.
Happy Birthday
I love you!