I’m not really one to write a huge, long birthday post every year for each of my kiddos.  I hope that they know they are special and loved without that.  In fact as they get older I imagine they won’t always appreciate having the details of their lives and birthday bashes splashed across my blog, accessible to the world.  However, there are moments that I feel the celebration of their birth is really more about my unpacking where they’ve come from and where they are going.

Lanae is my third child.  In so many ways she fits the mold of “birth order”.  She’s a middle child!  I can see that she sometimes feels forgotten, ignored, unimportant.  She yearns to shine bright but I see the crushing of her little heart overshadowed by two big brothers and a baby sister.  I know she’ll be fine.  She’s resilient, beautiful, amazing, smart and host of other wonderful attributes.  But she’s also my sweet, sweet little girl.  I long to hold her close, protect her, tell her she will succeed, she is loved, she is worthwhile and know beyond a shadow of a doubt that she hears me and believes me from now until her last breath.  But I see in her a niggling of doubt.  A constant pain of uncertainty, insecurity, if you will.  And I pray that she will overcome that.

You see she is the child I prayed I would get but never fully believed I would.  I don’t mean that in a disrespectful way to those who have faced issues of infertility or who have lost a child.  What I mean is that her arrival bestowed upon me the immense privilege of experiencing life with a daughter (and in fact, granted me the opportunity to experience it twice).  After the arrival of our two boys I pondered what life might look like in a houseful of boys.  My outlook shifted a bit as I tried to wrap my mind around that.  When I first found out I was expecting our third, I had in my mind that this little one may be the completion of our family.  James told me we would be finding out the gender because he knew he could survive three boys, but the possibility of four boys was more than he could fathom.  More importantly, he needed me to wrap my head around what my life would look like long before the child arrived.  He had no interest in a wife delivering a healthy, wonderful little boy only to be overcome with disappointment because he wasn’t a girl.

But, of course, God always knows the plan.  I sometimes wonder if he doesn’t look at us with a minor smirk and say, “if only they’d just trust me, they’d know I already have it all figured out”.  In this case, I’m sure He did.  When we found out Lanae was on her way, it opened the door to possibility.

131214_MHP_Davenport_029When I look at her now I see this stunning, little lady.  I can’t imagine how different my life would have been without her.  Sometimes I struggle to “get” her.  She’s intense!  She’s affectionate but standoffish.  She knows what she wants but sometimes struggles to go after it.  She’s so, SO precious.

My privilege in raising her is recognizing the ways she is herself.  I can pinpoint exactly who she looks like, oddly a total “mini-me” of her Uncle Cam, James’ youngest brother.  But I can’t pinpoint those obvious character traits that place her more in relation to my side or James’ side.  However, I am reminded through that, that she is her own person.  She’s exactly who God created her to be and while she may find along the way that she favours certain relations in her life, I think she’ll be a much happier, content individual when she settles into the fact that she is herself.  Perfectly made for a purpose at this time in history, in this family, as Lanae Daelyn Davenport!

HAPPY 8TH BIRTHDAY SWEET CHILD.  You are LOVED!!

photoToday is Lanae’s first post!  She is an energetic little girl who longs for adventure.  She is quite eager to give this a go and is even going to try and type on her own.  I promise I won’t edit too much but I may jump in here or there just to make sure her sentences are at least understandable!  So without further introduction here she is…

One  day  i  want  to  go  on  an  adventure  and  the  place  i  want  is  Vancouver  because  my  uncle  lives  there!

Life is a journey!  I think we’ve all heard “life” made reference to in a number of metaphors or similes.  However, I think it’s safe to propose that we could insert any number of other words in place of “life”.  Marriage, a career, and yes, PARENTING!

The word “journey” (as stated in the Mirriam-Webster dictionary), is actually defined as “the travel or passage from one place to another”.  It doesn’t really include a description of how that journey takes place, i.e.. easily, with much difficulty, quickly, slowly, etc.  Just a basic knowledge that one will get from point A to point B as a result.

I’ve managed to ramble sufficiently so I’ll come to the the subject of my ponderings of late!  A struggle I seem to have a hard time letting go of…what makes a good parent, who is actually responsible to judge who good kids are, why are some parents so obsessed with how screwed up other people’s kids are, is there a right and a wrong way to parent and quite specifically what is God calling me to in my own personal journey as a parent.

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Friday, November 5th was another great day to celebrate another beautiful child in our home. Lanae is an interesting girl…she is bright, she communicates her desires and needs very clearly but above all she is determined and knows her own mind. I am always shocked at her ability to explain things to me and her perception of a situation.

Although I’m quite certain that her and I will quite often disagree on a variety of issues I am 100% aware of the fact that my love for her and who God has created her to be will remain unscathed. She is a treasure in our family and I know God has great things in mind for her.

This year has opened a great number of opportunities for her. She is attending preschool this year and thoroughly enjoying the social aspect that it awards her. We also had the opportunity to attend her first fieldtrip to the local pumpkin patch. We didn’t get much into the Fall festivities this year as it’s been an extremely busy fall so I was quite glad at this opportunity to go with her class and enjoy the usual fall activities.



Lanae is also a very family oriented person, as are all of our kids, which is definitely a direct result of having both sides of our family living in the same city or at least within a very short distance of us. So she was thrilled when her Uncle Joel and Auntie Meghan got themselves a kitten. Her name is Lily and since spending time with her Lanae is quite certain that we need to get a cat as well and name her Lily.

Lanae’s actual birthday wasn’t necessarily anything elaborate but we did give her the gift we got for her that I found on a local swap site. She loved the little baby doll bed with a canopy and her “talking” baby doll to go with it. I know she’s going to be so much fun as she grows up and I only hope I can keep up with her passion and drive.

I think my mom has been waiting for granddaughters all her life. Although it took her awhile to warm up to having grandchildren she has overcome that in leaps and bounds. Over the years she has found a number of wonderful things to give my four children. Things, not the least of which is her time and love. But being a bit sentimental the things I tend to cling to are the tangible evidence of her deep love for them.

My mom learned to crochet when she was but a little girl and an art she has not lost! It is definitely not a skill I have inherited but I am beginning to think I should learn. Each of my children have received a beautifully hand-crocheted afghan from my mother. Sam’s is the old Canucks colors of maroon, navy, blue and white, while Jake’s is the new Canucks colors, bright green, blue and white. Lanae was given a lacy, white and pink baby afghan with pink satin ribbon woven into it when she was born and Annie has a wonderfully delicate, lacy cream baby afghan. A few years ago Sam also requested a sweater. My mom obliged but gained reassurance from Sam that he would actually wear it. Although it was meant for him when he was 6 he still shoves it on and wears it on cold winter days under his winter jacket.

Well, in recent years mom has again picked up a little bit of a lost art from her early married years. As a little girl, I remember running under a quilting frame with various members of my family positioned on all sides of this quilt. They would spend days on it and carefully hand-stitch the quilt together. It seems a little House on the Prairie-ish for me but the results were always stunning. Having said that I was so excited when mom said she wanted to make matching quilts for my girls. Knowing my mom I knew it would only be the best material, the best quality, and the most superb craftsmanship possible. Needless to say I was not disappointed! Lanae’s quilt is the first to be finished and I know Annie’s will follow shortly. In the picture above Lanae is really sleeping! She was so thrilled to receive this wonderful gift and I am happy that she has this token of love from her grandma to remember her always.

To be honest it is clearly not just I whom the sentimental bug bit because both my sons have asked for a similar gift from Grandma. Thankfully my mom will be willing to accomodate that request but I’m hoping that maybe it will be something we can do together so I can learn this beautiful talent she has!