My little 8 Year Old

   Evelyn turned 8 years old last week. It was a strange week full of denial that she is growing up and excitement that she's getting baptized. It was a celebration of her mere existence in our family. Sometimes I wish we could clone her about 10 times.

    Evelyn is a delight to me. She loves to create things. It doesn't matter what things, or what kind of material she uses. Give her a piece of pocket lint and as long as you don't tell her where you got it, pretty soon it will find its way onto one of her artistic expressions. We use a lot of tape and glue at our house. She likes the glue gun best because she can glue almost everything together with that.
   Evelyn has a strong sense of justice. She loves rules and structure and sometimes even punishments. (I have no idea how she pulls that one off.) One time she read a political billboard that stated, "Stop punishing students!" Evelyn was indignant! "Stop punishing students?!?!" she exclaimed, "why, that is ridiculous! If you don't punish kids, they will never learn! I'm a student, and sometimes I definitely need punishments!!" But Evelyn definitely avoids being in trouble.
   Evelyn loves responsibility. And she excels at logistics. Whether we are cleaning the church building or setting up a party, Evelyn loves to be right in the thick of things. She is very patient when she can't help and she has to wait for me or her daddy to complete something.
   Evelyn has a surprising sense of humor. She terrified Michael and I one day when she borrowed a realistic looking rubber rat and set it painstakingly in the hall for us to find. We thought a rat had found its way into our house and died. Just as we were about to get a broom, Evelyn cried, "Its just a toy!" and walked right up to the rat and picked it up! We saw the tail flopping about and we just about had heart attacks!
  Evelyn has a sweet heart and she likes to make people happy. She also wants people to like her, but she won't do anything to gain that love. She knows that standing for something will eventually make most people like or at least trust you and she wants that. So she knows how to say "no" to people. Evelyn is a leader, not a follower. But she also works to be a listener.

   Evelyn loves God. She has always had a strong bond with Him. "Jesus" was the second word she spoke. She loves to work on that relationship. She loves to pray and read scriptures. She used to love to bear her testimony but lately has been a little more shy about sharing her heart with such a big group of people. After she got baptized and confirmed, we were singing the closing song, "Baptism" and Evelyn started crying because she felt so much closer to Heavenly Father.
   Evelyn is my hero. She teaches me all the time that life is what you make it, and the richest and best moments are with family and friends. She notices when people are lonely and tries to brighten their day. She loves to share her possessions with anyone she's around. She is not afraid to try new things and faces life as an adventure. Sometimes life hands her a disappointment and she lets herself cry for a moment, but then she bounces back with more determination to do better next time and enjoy herself in the meantime.
   I love you, little angel! Thanks for all the laughs and the proud tears and the teaching moments where I come away having learned more from you.