Dear Peety,
We love you, our dear 6-year old. Where did those
years go? And yet, we were there for each moment, living with you,
being, soaking up
you, little you, who is growing into such a
beautiful girl, our dear daughter, our perseverant and passionate Peach,
intelligent and a wonderful learner, excellent reader, determined to
complete a task and succeed. You are a giver of love, an affectionate
squeezer, a beautiful artist, and full-of-sweetness writer of love
notes, with an eye on beauty in the smallest of flowers. Everyday you
have given Mommy a bouquet of flowers and trampled through the grass, as
you were barefooted, with your little Peety skirts on,
sometimes-hair-down, bounding about with so much energy. We love you,
dear Peach. I remember your birth. Dr. B delivering you and my telling
him we named you Guadalupe; how amazing as his practice is named after
your Guadalupe's hill.
You dearly love your big sister Maddy,
your best friend, your playmate, your dear, dear sister and friend. How
sweet you are to care for your little man Caleb, and yet you are
playmates and fun-havers with one another. You are the little mom to
Miss Pen, and you love how she loves you as she looks for Ita. How much
you love your littlest sister, whom you affectionately call Marty. Love
flows out of you, and we love soaking it up. Never, ever forget Our dear
Mama's word to Juan Diego,
"Am I not here who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow
and protection? Am I not the source of your joy? Are you not in the
hollow of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms? Do you need anything
more? Let nothing else worry you, disturb you." Forever you will be held in her arms and for ever will we love you and make sure you know that throughout your entire life.
Happy birthday, sweet girl, our giggly Peach, who, when she smiles is just . all . SMILE!.
It's no wonder that I chose Your Siling Face by James Taylor when you
were still growing inside of me, because you are just that: one SmIliNg
face!
How similar e was to you in his zeal and perseverance, and carries the same model in his motto that reminds us so much of your determined will to succeed:
ALWAYS FORWARD, NEVER BACK.
The word that best describes Junipero is zeal.
It was a spirit that came from his deep prayer and dauntless will.
“Always forward, never back” was his motto. His work bore fruit for 50
years after his death as the rest of the missions were founded in a kind
of Christian communal living by the Indians. When both Mexican and
American greed caused the secularization of the missions, the Chumash
people went back to what they had been—God again writing straight with
crooked lines.
(taken from: americancatholic.org)
