{Marshall Monday}

This edition of "Marshall Monday" is all about Emma! Honestly, she is one of the most incredible people I know! She's amazing and I love her to death! It was sooo good to see her last week when we visited my parents. First of all, because she's so great with McKenna. She never gets tired of her and is always playing and teaching her something.

Right now McKenna's favorite thing to do is buckle and unbuckle things like bike helmets, booster seat straps and carseat buckles. She's actually gotten pretty good at it and Emma just sat with her in the grass helping her.
Emma is the FOREVER big sister! She knows how to be a great big sister (even to her little cousins). She brings Abby and Nate great security and helps them transition well to a variety of different situations. If Emma's okay, they're okay.

It did take a little coaching to get Emma that high up in the tree, but before we knew it she was doing it all by herself and I had to even tell her (and Abby) a story about Uncle Tim falling out of a tree just to make them be a little more cautious.

What a cutie!

One of my favorite things about Emma's age right now is what a little sponge she is. She wanted to know all about the things her mom and I did growing up at PopPop and Grandmom's house. So I taught her how to find bloodroot (the plant above) and how you can dig up the roots, break them open and make paint out of them like the Native American's used to do. She gave it a try and had a little bloodroot orange paint before we knew it.

She and Abby were making a "fort" in the woods, so I showed her how her mom and I used to find vines and leaves and "sew" them together to make curtains.

See the "curtain" right behind Abby that Emma made for the entrance to their "fort?"

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You can click HERE to see some of my most favorite pictures of Emma ever that I took back in 2007. And click HERE to read about one of my most favorite memories of Emma! She overcame a little fear and ended up having the time of her life! Make sure you watch the video in that post too!

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As far as prayer request go for Emma this week there is ONE BIG ONE! And if Emma was asking you to pray for her she would ask you to pray for the same thing. She is extremely nervous about third grade this fall. She thinks about it every day and is worried about a variety of different things; riding a new bus, being in a new school building, worrying about getting lost, making new friends, worrying about not having friends, worrying about what her new teacher will be like, etc. Last week we talked about this a lot and I prayed with her about it but I'm worried that she's going to miss out on some of the fun of the summer because she's so worried about school. We talked about taking one thing at a time and not worrying about everything at once, but that's easier said than done. I think we worked through some of the bus worry after she realized that Abby will be riding the bus with her and that she'll probably be friends with a lot of the kids in her new neighborhood by the time the school year starts. But would you pray for Emma this week that she'll have peace in her heart about third grade. Pray that even at a young age that she'll learn to trust in the Lord to take care of her. She's so busy taking care of everyone else all the time, just ask Jesus to let her know that He's taking care of her!