Tag Archives: birthday prayer

And then there was the baby

“Last-borns tend to be self-centered, attention-seeking people who will wrestle the spotlight from others if need be.” – from an article on birth-order at a parenting site

stormie at wedding 1087

Not so, our Stormkins. She never fit the profile of the typical baby of the family. She, in fact, nurturing spirit mixed with careful thoughtfulness, is adored by her siblings all, for she has enriched their lives and adds to them as people. She never wrestled spotlights from them nor manipulated to take their place. She is loved deeply for how she has loved them. She is loved fiercely for all the ferociousness with which she has protected and covered and served and loved them.

And on her birthday, they can’t say enough. She is festooned with praises, this particular baby-of-the-family.

stormie and me

Last year on Mother’s Day – I have the black eye. Stormie is flawless.

Can you even imagine what it is like to get to be her parents?

She lives in our town. She lives in a house she is making her own and it is designed with detail, though it may seem quite casual because it is so relaxed and unpretentiously welcoming. But it’s reflective of her utter sophisticated coolness. Everything around her, including the giant German Shepherd, Saber, is structurally Stormie.  Light rebounding from carefully curated usable collections of her heart and soul: her books, her kitchen tools and dishes, her music and her scents – all clues to a most unique and copacetic home owner. No one else could possibly live in that particular early 1900s house. It pulses with the beat of Stormie’s life-giving existence, her panache, her style. Don’t tell her I told you she has one. She would blush.  :)

Stormie – as tagged on FB

stormie on FB

“Tax-Day” forever redeemed. 1986 a best-year ever.

April 15 was never the same after 1986. The IRS never once more could claim this day, for this was the day our family became **7** and it was perfect: Dave and Jeanie (aka dad and mom), Tara**Stephanie**Tredessa**Rocky and finally, fantastically, phenomenally ~ Stormie. Our Stormie Dae (it really was icy and blizzardy on the day she came). And for that matter, of all the things that happened in 1986, jobs and a new house and church stuff and life in general, the *best* thing of the year was having Stormie, a sweet-natured baby who has grown up to become a  trustworthy, responsible, longsuffering, compassionate, missions-minded, loving, doting, worshiping, praying, wry, funny, intuitive, deeply-connected, intensely-loyal, attentive, utterly-amiable and oh-so-likeable girl. I guess she is a woman, but she is my baby girl, too.

“Hold tight to the sounds of the music of living, happy songs from the laughter of children at play…We have this moment today.” I sang this, holding you, when we dedicated you to the Lord (a Gaither song)

Good grief – how did you turn out so well? Must be all those older sisters and that older brother helping hone and shape you.  :)

the seestas on christmas morn in their jammies

So, my sweet baby girl – of course I bless the day you were born. And I bless you.

Let us pray on the occasion of the celebration of your birth and the life you are living:

I pray you live, Stormie, take the deepest breath, inhale the Holy Spirit, the ruach of the LORD, and be energized and live. **Live!** Live deeply and hidden, unseen and true. Live loudly and bright and in the light, in the open, fearlessly. Live to delight the One. And live to make happy the places in you only you and your Maker know anything about. Be quickened and energized with that same power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead – let your mortal body reflect the glory of God (remember our homeschool rap from 1 Cor. 6.20, “therefore – glorify God in your body,” haha).

I see His countenance on you, my sweet. I see a twinkle, a sparkle dancing in those eyes.  The stars are casting light on your nights, the sunglow doesn’t match your days. Damn self-sufficiency, baby-love. You could do that in your sleep. You possess fortitude and ability and are able, but you, my daughter, were meant for the wild passions of the things of God. You have tasted eternity on your tongue. Your hair has been blown by the winds of the Holy Spirit. Your heart expands in the Presence, your longing for the Divine opens doors to see Him face to face, to be so close you hear His still, small voice with utter clarity.

You are like David. He did not strive to come out from among the rest. He was doing what he did. He was honoring God and singing songs that blessed the Lord – when no one heard, and no one saw. And God invited him to come out, to come up, to be seen, to do what he was born to do and was already doing in secret places. That is how it is, my sweet. God sees you. He knows you. It’s ok when He calls you forth. You’re no Johnny-come-lately. You are true and real, you are an honest version of who God says you are.

And all the things the enemy has ever done to try to take that away – well, to *h*with the devil. God rebuke the enemy on your behalf, I pray! May God be your Protection, your Guide, your Guard, your Friend, your Father, your All. And when He invites you to the seat of honor, all of us will know why and we’ll be cheering loudly and raucously, Stormie’s fans and family, with hearts fairly bursting in love.

I bless the day you were born and all the days you have left, in Jesus’s Name, in His great love and grace, and with gratefulness for the forgiveness and healing we  have received for all the wounds and wrongs and sins {redemption has come – He has made all things new!}, my darling daughter – in HIS name, I bless you! Amen.

Your momma loves you. Be-member. ;)

Happy Birthday, Tredessa, born on a perfect June day

Which came first?  The perfect day?  Or the perfect baby being born to make a regular, old day so perfect?

Q: What do exotic eyes and head-full of thick, dark hair, a yellow-embroidered sun-suit with a yellow bonnet, ginger-molasses cookies from the grocery store bakery, my first “private room” at the hospital, water breaking at a church softball game while dad was in the outfield, being 11 days past my due date, a Scrabble game (which I still contend I was winning) and Howard Community Hospital in Kokomo, IN all have in common?

These are the bits and pieces of your arrival, your story, your birth, your place in the family history.  Tredessa Christine Rhoades Faaland: You made us mommy and daddy and 3 adorable girlies, the Rhoades Family, 1983.

Monday’s child is fair of face…

I have been re-living your beginnings so much this spring because of Bailey Sophia.  So many thing about her remind me of you, her hair, her kissable cheeks, her content and laid-back disposition.  June of 1983 was one of the most notable months of my life, the summer that followed memorable and lovely: your father was ordained, there were long afternoons in the backyard with your two sisters splashing in a pool, great music on the radio, and my little baby girl in a yellow carrier, right by my side in the green grass on sun-shiney days.

Dessa at 2 weeks 

Dessa at 6 weeks 

And now here we are, 30 years down the road – celebrating your extraordinary life, unable to fathom what we’d ever have done without the most-middle-child of them all.  You are a center-point, a bridge, an equidistant intermediary.  You are observant and intuitive; careful, but powerful.  You’re a challenging, but honoring daughter and your trust in God is an inspiration.

 

Dessa at 5

I am so pleased to see the life you are leading.  I am so happy God sent you love in a very good-looking, strong, humble package.  I am so thrilled that you have gotten to go to the nations in Jesus’ Name and serve selflessly in high-places for the glory of God.

More than anything this year, I am so excited with you and for you that you are with child, that you carry a dream within – as you have so longed to have children.  I am rejoicing with you and counting down the days.  Your child will be loved and adored and watched over with great zeal – because you have sown that into the lives of so many other children while you were waiting.  It will all come back to you.

For your 30th birthday, I pray and wish and bless you with this (my version of a birthday card):

So HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY, Dessy-Poo.  Your momma loves you, girl.  You bless my heart and set me straight.  LOVE YOU BUNCHES!!! xxoo