Day 4,147

The Bub’s NINTH Birthday!

Oh my word, it's SO much more tiring being NINE!!!!

JUST KIDDING! This boy's just the world's hardest sleeper--even on his birthday. Turns out, waking him for his presents is a task in it's own right, but alas, the time has come. Our Bub is NINE!! And we just can't even believe how quickly the years are flying by. We adopted Bearett when he was 4 years and 4 months old, so...he's officially been apart of our family for more time than he was apart from our family and we can't imagine life any other way. His little life brings us so much joy and so much wonder--I don't think there exists a child quite as unique as him. His capacity to learn and retain information is astounding, and not only that, his ability to articulate what he's learned is remarkable. He loves all things mechanical and figuring out how something works by tearing it apart. Bearett is a builder, an artist, a thinker, a reader,  an inventor, a violinist, a hunter, an athlete, and a lover of God's word. He likes meeting strangers, telling people what he knows, making new friends, learning history, going to libraries, eating fish, riding his skateboard, and obviously, provoking his three little sisters. And maybe his favorite of them all: finding treasures to add to his many collections!

Our boy also LOVES the beach, so...

To our best Bathtub Beach, we go!

One of his favorite things to do is to collect rocks and seashells (and shark teeth when we can find them), so a day at the beach was an easy choice on his very special day.

We enjoyed the day with some dear friends and even got evacuated from the water due to a shark sighting! It was an afternoon to remember and we love that we were celebrating him while experiencing it.

(And yes, as soon as we got into the truck from the beach to leave, Bearett grabbed Dad's Bible from the front seat and started reading!)

He's our goofball, our brainstormer, our bug catcher, stinky armpit and toot machine. He's our leader, our trouble maker, our sermon preparer, our explorer, candy crusher and dance partner. He makes us laugh, he makes us proud, he leaves us dumfounded and in awe. He inspires us, challenges us, encourages us, and can even push allllllll the buttons we didn't even know we had (literally and figuratively)!



He's my most favorite son, my most crooked smile, my wild child and most tender heart.

I love you, my sweet, sweet son.

And I hope this year is our best one together yet. 

Happy birthday, Bearett John! Garrett Ron. Tteraeb. Bubba Jub. Bub.

Favorite foods: fish, olives, candy-anything, chicken Alfredo, Daddy steak

Hated foods: mashed potatoes, beans, roasted bell peppers

Favorite color: camo

Favorite hobby: hiking, collecting, Taekwondo, fishing, garage saling, reading

States visited: Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia

Chores: make bed, clean room, take out garbage, vacuum, put away clothes, rinse dishes, cook with Mom

Favorite subject: history

New things about Bearett this year: he can nearly touch his toes (finally!!!), he got his first hit in kid pitch, he quit baseball, he started Taekwondo and is almost an orange belt, he dressed up as mini-Wooly Bull in Durham, learned to skateboard, read 7 biographies on different missionaries who served on 5 different continents, knows where the majority of countries are in the world, finished third grade, did art and PE at our church's school, kept a nature notebook of trees in every place we lived in Florida, and worked with Daddy on the farm.