Hope's half birthday

 Last week was Hope's half birthday. The big 4.5! As usual, we did silly hats at dinner and half a cake. But this year Hope specially requested that we invite Naomi and that dinner be spaghetti :)

You wouldn't know from the way they carried on that they'd spent the entire previous afternoon together. They danced and hugged and made over each other like looooong lost friends! Naomi brought a silly hat with her, but of course Hope had already picked out silly hats and assigned them to each of us. I had a dinosaur hat and Grant was ~supposed~ to wear the dog hat, but he wasn't remotely interested.

Daddy ended up with the fish hat, and during dinner (of which Hope ate TWO bowls of spaghetti) we commented that he looked like Jonah in the belly of the whale. Naomi wasn't familiar with the story, so I read it to the girls after they ate. It led to a brief discussion between the two of them about wanting to obey God even though it's hard sometimes.

And then? Then! Naomi said she'd like to ask Jesus into her heart like Hope did way back when. So HOPE led her - one word at a time, "repeat after me" style - through the prayer of invitation. These two girls are so tight, I didn't really know if Naomi was into it the way Hope was or if she was just playing along. But when they got through Hope's version of the prayer, then Naomi clasped her hands and closed her eyes and prayed the same gist in her own words!

Watching this incredible thing happen between two little girls, almost completely without me being involved, just blew me away! I love, love, love that Hope actually believes the faith she professes and that she's so eager to share it with her friends. My four-and-a-half-year-old is really something special :)