Summer.
The auburned boy has turned three, the boy whose name means “brave messenger”, whose eyes reduce my soul to puddles of joy and delight. He climbs everything, breaks many things, fears NO thing, and makes his mother a bit more gray with each passing dare-deviled day. He greats me with a “huug and a kiss” morning and night and many moments between, this snuggler of my heart. He softens the rough places I didn’t know I had and overwhelms me with the tangible goodness of God. A boy. A ginger boy. A boy who rests his head safely on my shoulder with secure breaths and contented sighs. He delights in his sister, melts his mother and follows closely after his father’s every step. Oh this boy of mine. How I love him so.
Longer days, shorter nights. July quickly approaches.
Her dark hair cascades down like sheening waves of chestnut and ebony. Just shy of five, this beautiful Answer To Prayer shines hope and joy through her bright blue eyes, eyes like sapphires surrounding a glowing orb of glacier blue. Simplicity delights this boundless dreamer who sees a friend in every stranger, greets each new day as an adventure and has never known a dull moment in her existence. She bestows gifts from the mundane to the imagined extravagant, all boasting of her affection and placed value in people. How she loves to give gifts to others! Her nurturing heart tenderly cares for every wound in the Leino household – those seen on our flesh and those hidden in my aging soul. She has lavished love and joy into places long tucked away in me. This blue-eyed beauty sees beautiful in the plain, the broken, the misshapen and forgotten. She sees through innocent eyes with a courageous love that knocks fear off its feet. Protector of her brother, admirer of her father and kindred spirit to the child her mother once was. This sweet girl of mine. How I love her so.
Summer’s heat will quickly give way to autumn. Autumn to winter. Winter to another year to another decade to a life fully lived. May I drink it all in and savor every drop.
These precious children of mine. Oh how they’ve grown.
A Life Of Patience 