I could not be more proud! and blessed! and thankful!

Today was just like any other Wednesday. Work. Come home and play with the kids. Eat dinner. Then get ready to go to Church. Adalyn asks every day if it's Wednesday or Sunday because she knows that she will get to go to Church so she was very excited to get there tonight. Right before we were getting ready to leave, she asked Adam if she could take her coloring book so she could share with her friends. I initially didn't hear her ask the first time so as I was walking down the hall with Landon, she came to me and said, "I take my coloring pages to the boys and gurls at Church?" For her birthday last year, she got a "giant" coloring book of Tinkerbell. It has "giant" sheets in it which are sprawled all throughout our house on a daily basis. She can never just pick one sheet to color, she must color on all of them you know. For the tinest, split of a second, I thought "no" to myself. All I could think of were giant sheets of Tinkerbell flying everywhere as we were trying to go to church, or losing it somehow, etc. And then, after my split second of thinking no, I completely changed my mind and said yes. Adam and I have showed her how to share, talked about sharing, praised her every time she has shared with her brother, reminded her to share, explained why we need to share, and on and on and on we go. It hit me that she gets the concept and wants to put it into action. What a better way to let her do it! So we gathered up the giant tinkerbell coloring book and headed to Church. When we arrived, her class was outside playing. I explained to Donna that Adalyn was adamant about bringing her book to Church to share with her friends. Adalyn was very excited to do so because on the way to church that's pretty much all she spoke about. "I share with my friends at church!" We dropped her off, then Landon, then we headed to class ourselves. Adam and I kept talking about how proud we were for the way she was acting and the fact that she was so insistent about taking her coloring book to share with everyone else. If you have a toddler, or have been around one, you know how difficult it is for them to want to share. She does pretty well for the most part unless Landon thinks about touching one of her cows, then she puts a stop to that. She has, however, been known to share her cows, too. :) When we picked her up, we learned that the girls took part in coloring and one girl even asked if she could take her sheet home. I was obviously going to let her but I waited to hear what Adalyn would respond with and she picked it up and handed it to her. (I am seriously having a major mom moment and I don't think I have stopped smiling since earlier tonight.) Adalyn then turned and looked at me and said,"Please I go upstairs and sing To God be the Glory?" Ahhhhhhhhh. I mean really?! Is that not the most precious thing ever?? I am totally bragging here but I just can't help it.I am so proud of her. Witnessing her actions tonight showed Adam and I that all of our hard work is paying off. Who knew parenting would be so difficult at times? But yet SO very rewarding all in the same breath. I think we breathed a little sigh of relief as we watched and listened to her sweet actions and innocent voice this evening. My heart was in awe, and was so full of excitement and love. I thanked God over and over for my sweet girl and what she chose to do tonight. As we were getting in the car, Adam and I were telling her how happy we were, how thankful we were for the decision she made tonight, etc, that I told Adam we should take her by the dollar store to let her pick out a toy. It was a spur of the moment idea, and I'm sure some of you are thinking, "You don't give your kids toys for doing something that should already know to do" etc, but you know what, we did. I guess I felt like praising her for her actions just wasn't enough. I was so thrilled that she chose to do that on her own, I thought it might be a nice treat for her to pick something out. As we pulled up to Dollar General, Landon looked too comfortable in his car seat to get him out so Adam stayed in the car with him while Adalyn and I ran inside to shop. When we got to the toy aisle, her eyes lit up. You would have thought it was Christmas. Oh was she so excited and was talking non stop. She had to touch everything she saw and said, "ohhhh!" "I like that!" "A Dinosaur!!!" I didn't think it would take long to pick something out but we walked up and down the aisle for 10-15 minutes. She was just so excited and overwhelmed so I had to help her make a decision. We ended up leaving with a glow in the dark wand, a glitter wand, and a container of this pudy stuff that reminds you of Gak like we use to play with back in the day! She carried the bag to the car and before we could even reach the car she was yelling, "daddy! Look what i got!" She was proud of her purchases (or my purchases) and even shared the wands with Landon on the way home. Sorry for being so mushy but I just couldn't help myself! I wanted to share Adalyn's "sharing" story so if you see Adalyn soon, ask her about sharing her Tinkerbell coloring book. I'm sure she would LOVE to tell you alllll about it! This is her before church tonight gathering all of her sheets together.

Way to go Adalyn May!