Nathaniel's Tenth Birthday

Despite the fact that we all stayed up way too late to watch Tim Tebow whoop up on the Steelers Sunday night (We recorded the game so we could watch it after we got home from church Sunday night... for those of you who are wondering why the game was so late for us), we still managed to get up before Nathaniel on Monday morning and give him a good old fashioned Wachter Birthday Wake Up call.  I am not going to say it didn't hurt, though.

Our kids love the spy business.  You can check out this post, if you don't  know how what I mean.  The girls put together a top secret spy birthday for  their brother.

Complete with a top secret brief case

and bombs for breakfast.

There were fingerprints on everything... including some of the presents.  But then again... fingerprints on everything is not all that unusual around here.

For his birthday, Than asked if we could go visiting.  Our family has a ministry running a Bible correspondence course.  We have spent the last year since we took over the program trying to increase our number of students and finding ways to improve the program.  One way we have done this is visiting in neighborhoods to invite people to take the course.  We were able to hand out almost 300 registration cards on Monday.

Allen treated the family to lunch at Chick-fil-A, where the owner, who has become a bit of a friend to our family over the years, treated all the kids to ice cream sundaes in honor of Nathaniel's birthday.

Nathaniel has become a huge fan of the Hardy Boys.  In keeping with the mystery theme, all the kids gave him some vintage editions Brianna found on eBay.

One of the ladies we know who works there asked to take our picture, so here we are.

Brianna organized a spy game for the kids.  They had to locate the missing person.  She left clues, like this trench coat around the house to give them leads.  It is my understanding their mission was successful, even though they missed several important clues.

Our handsome little man.  Wasn't he just a little squirming blue bundle in my arms?  Ten seems so big.  Nine, not so much, but TEN!!!!  Why by Bible standards, just 2 more years and he will be a man!  Yikes. He has had a year of growth, physically, emotionally and spiritually.  It has been a blessing for his family to witness what the Lord is doing in his life.

Dinner you say?  Greek salad, baked potatoes and ribs.  There was supposed to be my mushroom soup, and even though I bought all the ingredients, I completely forgot to make it.  We will have it for dinner tonight with some good bread and a salad instead.

My brother knew nothing about the theme for Than's birthday, so we were all amazed when he showed up with this gift for Than.

The boys had fun working some of the mysteries with Uncle Frank.

Dessert was lemon cake with strawberry filling and Hershey's chocolate frosting.  I tried a little something different and made candied lemons for garnish.  If you are a lemon person, these are delicious in themselves.  

And of course there are blessings and praises for the birthday boy.

I am so blessed by your desire to be a man of God.  You work hard at developing the character qualities befitting a gentleman and looks for opportunities to practice them at home and in public.  You have a tender heart that truly desires to please those the Lord has made your authority.  You also reach out to your peers and those younger than you.  I have seen the Lord working on your heart as He lead you to salvation and as you have grow spiritually this year.  My pray for this upcoming year, is that as you continue to follow in the footsteps of your earthly and your heavenly father.  I pray that you would never lose your desire to be the best possible at everything you do.  For your life, I claim the promise from Proverbs 9:1 "Forsake the foolish, and live and go in the way of understanding."

Emma notes that he is willing to learn.

Aedan praises Nathaniel's ability to encourage people to do what is right.

Kaitlin prays for him to continue his rapid spiritual growth.

Brianna is proud of the changes he has made in the last year.

Sam and Ellie are grateful for his sharing spirit.

Pa says, I praise you for the commitments and dedications you have made to the Lord during this past year. I have seen real growth in your life and praise you for this effort.  May God give you the wisdom, discernment and strength to carry through with your commitments.  I pray that God will show Himself strong to you during this next year to encourage you and strengthen your faith.

Happy Birthday to one amazing agent.