Hannah is TWO!

Happy Birthday Hannah. Two years ago Laura went into labor while shopping on "Black Friday" at the mall. The labor became active in the late afternoon at the hospital and she arrived at 10:21 pm and weighed 7lbs 4oz. She had difficulty breathing overnight and spent a week in the children's hospital. However, God has been gracious to her and she has had no further breathing problems and has remained pretty healthy, only the occasional virus.

Today before Forest left for work he brought Hannah to the study to see her new kitchen. He brought her in to the room with her back to it and said "are you ready to see your birthday present?" When she turned and saw it she wasn't sure what to say. Forest asked, "what is it?" and she replied "it's a birthday!" He then corrected her and she began exploring it with her brother's help. All day she wanted to be in there cooking up all sorts of things and making various drinks for Laura. She even cleaned up the counters several times with a "wet" washcloth.

After Forest came home from work she received her second gift: pads and helmet with Dora on them. After being stiffly outfitted in them Forest asked what they were for, when she would wear them. She replied, "um a bike" and then to the question of what else, "a s(c)ooter" and Forest brought out her Dora scooter and she just got so excited she would have jumped up and down if she could well enough without the pads on her knees. When she got on it she proclaimed "it not working" and was taken outside for a lesson. She had a blast having Forest help her scoot around the driveway while we waited for her birthday pineapple pizza to arrive.

After dinner she enjoyed her birthday cupcakes. She has several shirts and some pj's with cupcakes on them and sounds so cute when she says "cu-cake" that her cake this year just had to be that. With pink or purple Black-Eyed Susan type flowers on top. She had picked out a cherry-chip cake and cherry frosting for it. She ate the frosting off the top, and about half the cake.

In the evening during night-time talk we read the story of Hannah in the Bible from 1 Samuel chapter one. Hannah was a faithful worshipper of God who was unable to have children. One year when making yearly sacrifice to God with her husband, she was praying for a son and told the Lord if he would give her a son she would give him back to service to the Lord in the temple when he was old enough. Eli the priest heard her, and when she told him of her request of the Lord, Eli said it her petition would be granted. Hannah then went home with her husband, and conceived a son which she named Samuel. And, indeed, when he was weaned, she brought him back to the temple to serve the Lord and Eli. It was this Samuel that would go on to be a great prophet for the Lord, and would eventually anoint David as King over Israel.

As we reflect on the story from which we got her name, we pray the Lord would continue to bless Hannah with the same grace he has shown her already in her life and that she too would become a faithful worshipper of God.