Happy Birthday, Baby Girl!

We're shifting gears today because it's the mini's birthday!!! As a mom, I'm just blown away at how fast the last seven years have flown by. She is growing up so fast and she's developing into this awesome little person. She's interested in things I would never have expected and I'm constantly learning something new from her. 

{Welcome to the world, baby girl}

This weekend we threw her birthday party and I was blown away by her, so I just need to take a post to do a little mama bragging. But, in order to do that, I need to back up just a little bit.

In June, a wonderful friend of mine went on a mission trip to Togo and Emma thought that was the coolest thing ever. Emma knew that she was raising money to cover the expenses of her trip and instantly Emma wanted to help. Each week, Emma would collect her allowance and take her wadded up one dollar bills and a handful of coins to this sweet friend to contribute to her trip. She was so excited to help my friend get to Africa.

Together we watched a video about life in Togo and my friend showed her photos from her trip. Lots of things caught my attention, but what escaped my attention captivated Emma. In every photo and in every frame of the video, there was someone without shoes. She couldn't understand why so many people were without shoes and it broke her heart. She immediately wanted to change that. She wanted to collect flip flops and send them to the people in Togo.

In the process of trying to coordinate how we could feasibly do this, we discovered that flip flops actually weren't a need in Togo. Often the people there would slide off their shoes to dance and it just wasn't something they could use there. That didn't stop her. She knew someone out there needed shoes and she was going to help. The missions coordinator at our church discovered that there was a need for flip flops in Zimbabwe and we were given the green light to start collecting.

The next step was figuring out how we were going to collect the flip flops. Then, Emma hit me with her awesome idea. She wanted to use her birthday party to collect them. The guests were asked to not bring gifts and instead to bring flip flops. She asked that we also set up a table where the guests could make cards to send along with the flip flops. 

{Making cards to send to Zimbabwe}

The party was a complete success and all of our friends were so generous!! Emma was able to collect 111 pairs of flip flops plus money to buy even more!! We have a while before the flip flops will be sent to Zimbabwe but right now, I'm so very proud of her and so humbled by the beauty of her precious little heart. This little girl loves Jesus and has a heart for those in need. I can't think of anything I would want more for her. 

I'm one blessed mama to call this little girl my own and I thank God for her every single day. I love you baby girl and I hope you have the most amazing birthday!!