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Grandpa Diary #74

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Dear Kaylee,
You are really getting interested in other children. At the beach, you start following them around. Nana and Uncle David said you were giving away your food to other kids at the mall playground. If you visit me at Preschool chapel, you love to stand and stare at all the kids.

Your best buddy to hang out with is baby Tori. she’s one of your mommy’s teacher friend’s daughter. Our friend, Robyn, watches Tori, so you get to do stuff together. You love to hug her, but because she is littler than you, sometimes it looks like you are !

Love,
Grandpa

Grandpa Diary #49

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Dear Kaylee,

What an exciting day this is turning out to be! It is St. Patrick’s Day, which is a special day when we remember a pastor like Grandpa who did many brave things so he could teach people about how much God loves them. His name was Patrick. Some of the people he taught, taught other people and they told more people about Jesus, and one of them, Boniface, showed the German people God’s love, and because you are part German, you can trace your Christian family tree back to St. Patrick!

This is a lot of people for over 1000 years who love you enough to keep bringing the joy of God. Now you have it, too!

It is also an exciting day because you were at our house with your mommy and we had a big earthquake! We haven’t had one of those in a loooong time. I was holding you when the earth went,

“BOOM! Rattle, rattle…”

You just looked at me and started laughing because Grandpa shakes you once in awhile, like we are on a boat, so I guess you thought we were sailing…

We stood under a center doorway and your mommy and Nana were laughing, too, because you were laughing. Right away, your mommy wanted to make sure she was hugging you lots.

Kaylee, we have earthquakes where you live. In fact the second strongest earthquake ever recorded (measured by total energy released in smallest area) was back when your mommy was a little girl. It was called the “Northridge Quake” and the epicenter was about two miles from our house.

Yes, we were in the same house! You and your mommy had your first earthquakes in the same house. Now, this morning it was scary and rumbly but nothing fell over around us. The Northridge earthquake was shaking everything and it was like a train was coming through our house, with loud noise and everything! Fortunately your mommy was laying next to me because she had waken up a bit earlier and wanted to snuggle. So when the shaking started, I put her under my arm and ran to the dining room and put her under the table, so I could run back and get one of her brothers. Nana had her other brother. I remember your mommy was saying,

“Shaky, Daddy, shaky! Shaky, Daddy, Shaky!”

We all stayed under that big table for awhile. We pretended we were camping…

So, Happy St. Patrick’s Day, Kaylee, and Happy First Earthquake Day!

Love,
Grandpa

Grandpa Diary #48

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Dear Kaylee,

How exciting to have your mommy’s grandma out to visit! Since your mommy’s mommy is “Nana,” your great grandma is “Nana G.” Just like a rapper…

It is so much fun watching you interact with all these special women in your life. Your joy and their joy grows and this is so important for you, your family and, actually, for the world.

You see, Kaylee, you get to take on the same key role your mommy, Nana, and Nana G. have in their lives. “Joyful daughters.” I am reading a book (Joy Starts Here) about how joy is wired into our brains and how being a “joy starter” is what we do when we follow Jesus together. Jesus said his teaching on earth was so we could be filled with his joy and spread joy (John 15:11). Here is where you come in, Kaylee. I am quoting from the book:

“Joyful group identity grows where there is regard for the weak. One of the best tests for a joyful group identity is a high concentration of hopeful daughters. More gentle protector skills pass from one generation to the next through daughters than any other way. Joyful little girls who love the way that babies, women, mothers and wives are treated by both men and women in their culture will look forward to starting joyful families of their own. Hopeful daughters will grow a joyful generation and joyful group identity…Hopeful girls will raise hopeful families (p. 79).”

Well, Kaylee, Grandpa’s little joy starter, you sure are off and running!

Love,
Grandpa

Grandpa Diary #46

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Dear Kaylee,

It takes a big wardrobe to hang around with you lately. On Grandpa Day, Friday, you spit up about six times. Your eating now involves a variety of foods and so there is a variety of color available for your natural art…

You had to wear three different outfits. Nana had to change her clothes once and Grandpa twice. I thought we were doing a Katy Perry concert around here for awhile with all the costume changes!

I think part of the challenge is Grandpa likes to lift you up and put your tummy on the top of his head, then wiggle you around. That and bouncing you on my knee. And dancing with you. And rolling around on the floor.

OOOh, maybe it’s not so much a food issue…

Love,
Grandpa

Grandpa Diary #45

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Dear Kaylee,

Well, the first year “firsts” just keep coming. This time, it has to do with food again. You are getting the chance to feed yourself. At least put some little puff crackers in your mouth. This is hilarious to watch because you put one in and then another and another, kind of like Grandpa shoveling in some BBQ chips. Nana and mommy watch you and are trying to figure out if you are using your left or right hand most. I think you are a two-fisted puffer. Keep using both hands and we’ll have a point guard on our hands…OK, that’s a bit early…

Another first is how animated you get now when we Facetime you on the weekend. You know it is me and Nana because you give us your “Hi, how are you doing?” grunts. Sounds like you are trying to mimic a machine gun. “Ach, Ach, Ach, Ach Ach!”

I don’t know orders of things and months when this or that is “suppose” to happen with you. What I do know is living in the present is the way we are wired anyway. Don’t worry about what happened in the past and don’t worry about what’s going to happen someday. Live the way you are designed. Live today. Sounds like a good plan for your whole life doesn’t it?

Love,
Grandpa

Grandpa Diary #44

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Dear Kaylee,

Come on now. Grandpa goes out of town for one day and you go ahead and start crawling. What’s with that?

Nana gets to see you crawl and I get a picture and a video. O, well. You are really moving now. In my head, I was hearing the song, “Going Mobile,” by The Who, as you are moving about, but boy, that really dates me.

Then I just saw you on Facetime and you were crawling backward. Instead of the “Moonwalk,” you were doing the “Mooncrawl.” I would start humming “Bille Jean,” but that would date me again, so I will just say it is hilarious watching you and keep working on that core strength!

Love,
Grandpa

Grandpa Diary #43

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Dear Kaylee,

Well, you sure are exploring now. When we put you on the ground on a blanket, you start moving in the “roll and scooch” method. Nana said you rolled over to the Entertainment Center and then couldn’t roll anymore, but you kept trying rather than roll back. You’ll get the hang of it.

My favorite picture of this, though, is what I call, “The roll, scootch, Oh Oh!” You see in the picture that you scooched under your jumpy thingy and were trapped. Love the look on your face.

“Hey, Nana, what the heck? How did I end up here?”

Nana just started laughing at you and you laughed back. Here’s the thing. You will “roll and scooch” a lot in your life. We call this “exploring” and “stretching,” like I talked about before. But, the most important thing to remember is this…

Your mommy and daddy and the rest of us are there with you as you explore and stretch. Your heavenly daddy is with us, as He is with you, too. God adores you more than the rest of us a trillion times over. You will understand that. In the meantime, we all will be there and make sure that if you feel, “trapped,” freedom is as close as our love for you.

Carry on scoocher…

Love,
Grandpa

Grandpa Diary #42

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Dear Kaylee,

“Stretching” is an important part of our lives. We are designed to stretch because is is good for our bodies. Stretching becomes more important as we get older. It is the one key of good health that I don’t think most of us realize the importance. stretch every day and I try to take pilates twice a week to keep my stretching even more focused. I like how my pilates instructor always gives me an extra stretch when I seem to be at the end of certain movements. This just means that I can stretch more than I think.

I have always loved to watch you stretch. From the first day I saw you, you have been stretching. There are categories of stretch for you.

Category One: Stretch for stretching.
Category Two: Stretch because you want something.
Category Three: Stretch because you want someone.

Three is just starting and it is so much fun to see you start reaching out for those you know best. It is a one arm stretch. Grandpa got his one arm stretch this morning along with that first morning smile when you come over. It is a great combination!

When you get older you will learn about other stretching. Stretching your mind and stretching your spiritual life will be just as key as physical stretching. The biggest difference is this.

As you get older, your flexibility will decrease, but you still need to keep on stretching more than ever. Hence Grandpa finds himself using those strange looking Pilates machines. However, as you get older, your mental and spiritual stretching can actually increase. In fact, that is how we are designed. You can get more flexible as you age, expanding your mind and expanding your openness to God.

So, right now, you and Grandpa are in the same situation in our lives. Learning to stretch even more.

Love,
Grandpa

Grandpa Diary #16

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Dear Kaylee,

I just got back from a weekend spending time with young men who are in prison. This was a wonderful time to share God’s love. I made sure everyone had a chance to see a picture of how precious you are! I told them how much your mommy and your daddy and the rest of us love you. I used you as an example of what a gift it is for God to give me such a beautiful granddaughter!

A lot happened over the weekend. What a joy it was to see these men transformed right before our very eyes into people of hope! They couldn’t resist God’s love that kept pouring out from us, and his love was pouring out from them towards us and towards each other.

It was a sad weekend, too. It would be hard for you to understand how mommies and daddies might hurt their children. But, it happens. It would be impossible for you to understand how mommies and daddies might not want their children in their lives. But, it happens.

If you can imagine the worst things for a child to experience, that’s what what most of these young men experienced growing up. For some, no daddies in their life. For some, daddies who hit mommies and hit their children. For some, no mommies or daddies to take care of them. For some, they had to take care of themselves when they were 10 or 11…

No birthday parties.
Never hearing, “I love you.”
What must that be like??

You won’t know what that will be like, Kaylee. This will be something you will never experience. You are our own precious Kaylee, and we will protect, provide for, and love you with all of our hearts.

And that’s what is so amazing about God’s love! Growing up in that kind of love, makes it possible for you to share this love and watch it pour out to others.

Who knows, maybe some day you will join me, reaching out to young men or young women in prison, letting them know that God is their Heavenly “Daddy”- who will never let them go. Maybe someday, you will be God’s messenger who declares,

“There is freedom in Jesus!”

Love,

Grandpa