Sweet Sixteen

From 16th b-day with family

Rebecca turned Sweet Sixteen last Sunday! Of course, a car might seem like the obvious gift, but besides the fact that we're a practical and frugal family who would rather just give her the keys to the family car, we also wanted to make our gifts a bit more sentimental. So we asked her Papa to make her a hope chest. It's made of cherry wood, and he's doing an incredible job on it (it's not quite finished yet, but we all went to the shop to take a look). Rebecca was really surprised. She has always enjoyed keeping her treasures in a box, so I thought she'd really appreciate something like this. My Mom and Terry's mom gave her some heirloom gifts to go in it. She now has a quilt and an afghan made by two great-grandmothers that she never got to meet. She has a sterling silver tea set that was a wedding gift to my mother. I told her that the sterling represented the beauty and preciousness of her character. All the gifts together represent the legacy that her family is blessing her with. Thanks to all of you who wrote letters for her birthday! Papa is making a lift-out drawer for her hope chest where she can keep things like these letters.

I told Rebecca that if she had gotten a car, it would be out-of-date in the near future, but she'll probably still have this hope chest when she is an old woman.

We thank God every day for the blessing He gave us sixteen years ago!

Here are some more pictures from the family birthday party.



Rebecca will still have a party with her friends in a few weeks. She's going to do a Murder Mystery party (The Last Train from Paris), and Terry and I are going to cook and serve the dinner for her and her friends.