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Today, we celebrated Faith's sixth birthday. Her birthday isn't until Thursday but we had the party today. Faith and I were not feeling the best, I think we may be coming down with colds. So she seemed really weak and her eyes looked bad. But we had a good turn out and so many wonderful people came. Every year, we throw a big shin dig to get everyone together, in Faith's life. We usually have around 50 people. This year's theme was horses since this is her latest obsession. I cheated and used all her horse toys as decorations...cheapskate that I am! We always have a matting for a 8x10 frame out so all our guests can leave messages for her. Then we decorate with framed pictures of her, over the last year. I also do a big scrapbook, highlighting major events in her last year. This year, we were honored to have a couple of Faith's girl scout troop attend as well as her troop leader. This is such a big deal because these girls are Faith's first friends... outside of our family and close friends. Real friends... and those of you out there with kids like Faith, know... THAT IS A BIG DEAL! ACCEPTANCE.... SUCH A SWEET WORD! 
In the past, we have asked people to donate gifts/money to charitable organizations or to big needs but this year we let her have some presents. She actually enjoyed opening them with help from her girl scout friends and all her cousins. Little vultures! LOL! Now I have a wonderful story about one of her girl scouts friend's father. This little girl LOVES Faith...I mean LOVES her! She is crazy about her and just mothers her like crazy. She is in 4th grade. She evens wipes Faith's mouth, when she drools...now how many little girl's would do that? So she came to the party and her dad tells me that he needs to run to town and can she stay with us...of course, we say. So he leaves and is gone for a while, then returns during present time carrying this huge blanket covered...thing! Well, it turns out he had made this beautiful wooden horse by hand!
It was a work of art! Big enough for her to sit on and have room to grow! This is so cool because she loves to sit on things like this but she is too big for most now. It was so intricate and painted so beautifully! Lovingly! This big, strong man holding little Faith up on this awesome horse and tears welling up in his eyes! Such a wonderful blessing. He said he was so touched by Faith and he wanted to take one of her yearly update pages to Sunday school for the children he teaches! It stole the show! Nothing could top that horse! She was in love with it and so was everyone else! It was the best gift Faith ever received and will have a treasured spot in our home for the rest of our lives! To see this man, whom I have never met, just shaken up by our daughter...priceless! What a gift! She also received lots of other cool horse toys and some gift cards too. It was a wonderful party and meant so much to us to see all the people who have touched and been touched by FAITH!
So yesterday, we got a call from hubby's sister, saying that she had some cards from Faith's girl scouts troop. She dropped them off, last night, just before Faith went to bed. All the little girls and her troop leader had handmade these beautiful cards with confetti and horse stickers and ladybugs all over them. Each one had each girl's unique personality displayed with touching messages of healing for Faith. Carl and I had tears in our eyes as we read each one to Faith. They also had cut out pictures of horses and glued them to construction paper. They were all colors and designs and so beautiful! They also included a Beanie Baby Horse for her. The biggest thing to me was that someone remembered that Faith loved horses and had her room done in ladybugs. I don't really remember talking about that except for one comment to some of the girls that Faith was going to have a horse birthday party! Faith was so excited to take each card out of the bag and examine each piece. We lined them up on our kitchen bar so that we can all be reminded that Faith has 9 new friends who care for her! That means more to me than a million dollars! We are so humbled by the kindness of adults and children alike. I still think about how nervous I was about taking her to girl scouts and worrying that she wouldn't be accepted. All my fears were unfounded and she has become a thriving member of a group of girls who love her and hopefully are learning something from her. I have learned a valuable lesson, myself, about children that I didn't know.
