Ever since Jake started coaching youth basketball he’s only had teams aged 3rd grade level and above in his program. But this year all that changed as he added teams all the way down to kindergarten on the boys’ side and 1st grade on the girls’ side! His main motivation was that JJ was really wanting to be coached by Dad! Last year as JJ played in a rec league I noticed that he was ALWAYS looking at Dad in the crowd after plays and was yearning for his feedback every step of the way. The two of them have a very close relationship, and I just had a hunch that if Jake were to coach him it would be so beneficial to JJ’s confidence and development on the court. At this age he thinks Dad knows EVERYTHING :) and he is like a little sponge, ready to absorb anything out of Jake’s mouth! So, over the summer Jake began prepping to integrate K-2 boys teams into the Kingdom Hoops program by holding camps and getting the word out. JJ was practically through the roof in excitement all summer long as he anticipated his first season as an official Kingdom Hoops player. Then, earlier this fall Jake got a phone call from a parent in his program asking if he’d consider starting up a 1st grade girl’s team. For the past 6 months Jennifer had been showing a lot of interest in wanting to try basketball, so Jake figured it would be a perfect way for her to try it out under the umbrella of his program. The team was formed in less than two weeks! Jennifer was so pumped for practice to start that she even let JJ ‘coach’ her through a preview of drills in the driveway so she would be ready to go for practice. ;)
Our little Miss Jayla, kindergartner, of course also wanted in on the action and decided to try out the first couple of practices to see how she liked it. In true Jayla style, she was a bit more concerned about the fashion aspects of the sport such as what color basketball Daddy might get her and if he could also find her some basketball headbands. :)
First night of fall skills...
As anticipated, the demanding practices ended up being a bit too intense for Jayla right now, but maybe next year it will be a better fit.
Last week was the season kick-off, and my two little 1st grade hoopsters were ready to roll! When I took the picture on the right at the kick-off event it gave me a flashback to the picture on the left from the day we first met Jennifer in Ghana of March 2012. What a transformation!
This past Sunday was JJ’s first game and my action-picture-taking skills proved to be a lil rusty! These couple of pics were the only ones that I managed to grab…
They ended up losing 20-30 but JJ’s team has some tremendous potential….a couple of his teammates have never even played before and I know they are going to really improve over the season. JJ knocked down his signature left-handed drive into a lay-up a handful of times and finished out the game with 10 points. I am noticing a MAJOR difference in his confidence and aggressiveness from last year to this year. Last year he was extremely timid and passive, especially on defense. This year already it’s like the exact opposite. Could be because Coach Dad told him that he can be as nice as he wants to be off the court, but as soon as he steps onto the court he needs to be ready to rip someone’s head off. :)
Jennifer’s first game was last night, and they dominated their opponents 32-12!! And our little Miss Jennifer has quite the athletic ability if I do say so myself. She is very strong, very aggressive, and very, very speedy! Those ingredients make for a great basketball player, and she just absolutely LOVES being out on the court! Every time she was even close to being open she was calling for the ball! She drove into the hoop numerous times, showing off some impressive control with her ball handling skills. She ended the game with 4 points, but she was everywhere. Grabbing rebounds, getting fouled, executing drawn up out-of-bounds plays (she got to pass the ball in), making key assists, even taking off for two breakaway layups that she just barely missed the tail end of. It was so fun watching her play, and even better getting to see how much she really likes it! Can’t wait for the next games!
One year ago today we arrived home from Ghana with two new daughters – Jennifer and Jasara!!! In celebration of this day I put together a little video of our journey to them and pictures of our first year home.
This week was a big week for us as it was back-to-school in our neck of the woods! First order of business leading up to the week was hair - believe it or not! Justice has been growing his hair out to get cornrows for a looooong time, but it was still too short for my novice hands to attempt it. Through our foster care/adoption network at church I found out about an ISU student who does cornrows for only $15! She does hair out of her apartment as a side-job so it was pretty simple to get in for an appointment and to get them done!
You can imagine that it takes some pretty skillful hands to braid that short of hair! But what you probably can’t imagine is that this only took her an hour and 15 minutes!!!!! I know Justice was thankful for that, as these ended up being quite painful to get put in since his hair was so short and she had to get each row real tight. He loved the outcome though and especially loves how low maintenance these are to care for day to day.
Jennifer wanted to go back to her long hair for school, so we set aside a day to put in extensions. This time however, I decided to use synthetic hair that you can get at Sally’s Beauty Supply as I had heard that it helps the style to last much longer than the yarn that we used previously. We used 100% Kanekalon hair…
I really, really want to do these extensions with beads on the ends some time, but when I practice putting the beads on the doll it just takes sooooo long. Doing the style already takes long enough! But I did want to give Jennifer a little color/spunk to the extensions…something different/special for back to school….so we added in some hot pink accents! Here was the finished look!
These turned out SO FUN! The hot pink hair was also 100% Kanekalon however I picked it up at a hair supply store in the inner city…they don’t sell this at our Sally’s. I put these extensions in exactly as I did the yarn extensions, however, I had to knot and burn the ends (with a lighter) to seal them. With the yarn extensions I could just knot them, but the synthetic hair won’t stay with only a knot. Having to burn each end caused putting in this style to take longer than last time. For our next go-round I think we will need to spread out the styling over 2 days instead of our all day marathon. But seeing Jennifer swing her hair in the mirror full of giggles, and dance around the house in her excitement of having long hair makes all the hard work worth it!
And here were my babies on their first day of school which was Monday of this week! Jayla started Kindergarten (!!!!), Justice ~ 5th grade, Jennifer ~ 1st grade, and JJ ~ 1st grade.
I held it together in sending Jayla off for her first big day of school until she got on the bus, sat down, and waved from the bus window with her sweet little smile. I smiled and waved back, then turned toward the house and lost it while Kenny Chesney started singing in my mind as if on cue – “Don’t blink…”
Since then, it has helped tremendously that Jayla is SO EXCITED to go to school each day! She just can’t seem to get enough of it and is all bubbly and bouncing off the walls each morning while we get ready! Here are her first two pieces of school work that she came home with...
JJ is also pretty pumped about school right now, especially when it comes to reading! He is a memorizer, so reading has come rather easy to him which I am so thankful for. For 1st grade he has been given a reading log in which we record the amount of time each day that he reads to us, or us to him. For every 100 minutes logged in he gets to add a bead to his guitar necklace kept at school which their class will wear on special occasions. For whatever reason, this has just tripped his trigger and the kid cannot stop reading! Jake thinks it is his competitive nature and that JJ wants to beat every kid in his class and get the most beads. Well, I can tell you that he is definitely on track for that! He barely gets in the door from off the bus and he is asking if he can read to me. We set the stopwatch on the phone and he usually goes for 30 minutes straight. I have to laugh at his reading posture because he reminds me of a little old man reading a newspaper.
And did you notice what his choice of reading material is? That would be WWE character profiles and statistics. Every day this is what he reads to me. I should be able to spout off the biographies of every WWE character by the end of the month. :)
So with all the older rugrats in school now, that just leaves me and this little lady at home during the day!
Let me tell you, the girl is a HOOT! She has not missed a beat since the older ones have been gone! And having her one-on-one has helped me to appreciate her entertaining antics (and non-stop talking) much, much, more. :)
They keep me on my toes. They are mirrors to my soul. They are
always watching me and ready to imitate me. Therefore, they are my high calling.
They are reason to listen to my loud, worldly thoughts less and be attentive to
the Spirit's whisperings more. They drive me to rely on my Savior for power, for
wisdom, for inward changing, for renewal, for revelation, for mercy, for
perspective.They are quick to forgive, light-hearted, and full of dancing and
laughter. They love freely and trust deeply. They are my daughters, and I want
to be more like them.
I last blogged about my ongoing adventure in learning to do my two Ghana daughters’ hair HERE.
For the past couple of weeks I had thought that Jennifer’s hair was getting long enough to try out a style. Here’s a look at the length of Jennifer’s hair when it is stretched out…
A good inch and a half I would say. With that length, I could definitely try some corn rows, but since Jennifer’s hair has been short and shaved her whole life, I thought it would be more exciting to try out some extensions. Jennifer is always happily wishing and looking forward to having long hair, as many little girls do. With that, I set my sights on achieving this style ~ yarn extensions…..
To attempt a style it was just a matter of us finding a weekend where we could be home for at least one full day with no place to go, and no other commitments (easier said than done!). I finally got my chance this past weekend. The boys were off to a tournament, and the girls and I decided to sit it out and stay home for a hair weekend.
During our adoption journey a fellow adoptive mom from my church had referenced this website: http://www.chocolatehairvanillacare.com/ (aka CHVC) which has become an invaluable resource to me. Leading up to this past weekend I reviewed the binder I had made from this website with the rundown on pre-style steps and the how-to instructions for the yarn extensions. Everything I am posting about today, I got from the CHVC website.
I set aside Saturday as our styling day, but we started the process on Friday night with washing, detangling, and banding.
WASHING: I usually only wash Jennifer’s hair once a week with conditioner. But since we were going to be setting it with a style that would stay in for a good 3-4 weeks I wanted to make sure we started off with clean hair. We washed with shampoo and conditioner from the Shea Moisture line (which you can purchase at Target and Walgreens) pictured above on the left.
DETANGLING: This was easy peasy since Jennifer’s hair is so short. I’ve heard this step becomes quite time-consuming the longer the hair gets. That is why the CHVC website recommends breaking the styling up into two days and doing this step the night before. For detangling we used Kinky Curly Knot Today as a leave-in conditioner/detangler (pictured above in the middle – you can also purchase this at Target). Then section by section I combed through her hair with a wide-tooth comb. After I combed through each section I banded it (explained below) before moving on to the next. The Kinky Curly Knot Today is just awesome. The comb glided right through her hair.
BANDING: Not sure how necessary this step is with short hair, but we did it anyways to get into the routine of it. Banding serves a couple of purposes – 1) It preserves all the work you did during detangling and 2) It stretches out the curl making the hair easier to handle once it is time to braid, twist, etc. To band, you just section off the hair and place soft pony tail holders down the length of each section. Since Jennifer’s hair is so short, I just used one pony holder for each section and tried to spread it out along the length of each little puff. This took about 15 minutes and then we were done for the night.
The other thing I did the night before the actual styling was cut the yarn. That’s right – YARN! For these extensions you are actually using a spool of yarn that you can purchase at Wal-mart!
It’s just the craziest thing. For each extension you use two strands of the yarn. I cut each strand to 40 inches in length and set them out on the table in pairs so I could grab and go the next day once we started.
Note to self: I ended up using twice as much as what is pictured here – had to do another session of cutting during styling day.
The next morning Jennifer woke me up at 6:30am in her excitement to get started! We ended up actually starting around 8am by the time we all got breakfast and got dressed.
And here is a video tutorial of putting in one extension from start to finish:
I definitely needed to view the video to understand exactly how to anchor the yarn in. She shares a few tips in the video that aren’t in the written instructions, so make sure you watch it if you are planning on doing this. I memorized these steps and practiced one of the extensions on a life-sized doll with hair the day before trying it on Jennifer to make sure I had the technique down. The day before our scheduled styling day I also practiced one extension on Jennifer's actual hair to ensure that her hair was going to be long enough to twist into the yarn. And it was!
Alright, here are the products and styling tools that I used while putting in the extensions…
Basically, to start, I just released one row at a time of her sectioned off hair from the pony tail holders and sprayed the section with water. Then I coated the section of hair with Blended Cutie’s ‘Butter Me Up’ which is a moisturizer. From there I used the pintail comb for parting. I parted one row at a time lengthwise and then made horizontal parts within each row, turning her hair into little sectioned off squares. When I was ready to put in an extension, I would grab one little square of hair and put another coating of ‘Butter Me Up’ on it, and then combed out the square of hair with my small-tooth comb. Then, you separate the square in half, put the yarn in the middle, anchor each side and start twisting as the instructions linked to above explain. Once I got to the point on the twist where her hair was going to run out, I was supposed to put Blended Beauty’s ‘Happy Nappy Styles’ styling cream onto her hair so the endpoint smoothed into the yarn better and didn’t poke out. But I got mixed up on the instructions and used the ‘Butter Me Up’ there as well which doesn’t have near the holding power as the styling cream. So, time will tell how long the twists will hold together without getting too fuzzy!
From the nape of Jennifer's neck up to the crown of her head, I parted her hair in a brick pattern. So, from one row to the next the boxes are staggered which is hard to make out from this picture below. The arrow shows the point where her actual hair runs out - everything below the arrow is yarn alone.
As her hair continues to grow it will blend in with the yarn even better for the length of the twist, and you won’t even be able to tell it’s yarn. Honestly, most people can’t anyways unless they know.
Here was our little over halfway point which we got to at about 4pm I think!
In that picture you can see the part that I made from one ear, to the crown of her head, to her other ear. Everything below that partline comprised the back of her hair. You can also see the ends of the extensions in this picture which I simply tied off in knots. My goal was to try and get the knots all at about the same length which was really hard to do. [At the very end of putting in all the extensions, you go back through and get the knots exactly where you want them, tighten them so they lay flat, and then trim off the excess yarn below the knots as the finishing step.]
We took breaks for lunch, dinner, bathroom breaks, stretch breaks, and a long run around break while I cut more yarn. :)
From there, I started putting the extensions in on the sides of her head, working up to the top-center where I had made a middle part.
Regarding parting, the side extensions are easy to line up because you just continue a straight line from the last extension by the crown, on up to the forehead comprising the row.
Finally, after a full day’s hard work, there was one row left to twist!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Momma was ready to throw a party!
And about 25 minutes later, all the extensions were in and all that was left to do was the trimming!
Did you notice the clock in that first picture? Yes, by this point it was 11:37pm!!!!!!!!!!!! I had scheduled myself to work in the nursery at church the next morning at 9am, so I knew we had to bear down and finish it all that night. We wouldn’t have enough time to save the trimming until morning, and besides, it wouldn’t be very comfortable sleeping on all that excess yarn anyways.
So, although we were both quite tired, we kept trucking along. I went through and adjusted all the knots at the bottoms of the extensions so they were as close as I could get them to the same length. I also tightened up each knot and tried to get them as flat as I could. This part can drive you a little crazy, especially if you are really set on everything looking symmetrical. CHVC gives some trimming tips HERE. Finally I got to the point where I was comfortable to start trimming off the excess right below the knots. The whole re-knotting and trimming episode took another good 45 minutes. After the trim we threw on Jennifer’s sleep cap and went to bed.
The next morning we captured the results…..here’s how they turned out!
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And the back....
(side note: in real person her scalp does not show up this much - it is just the flash from the camera that is highlighting/reflecting it)
I was so happy with how they looked! Jennifer could not WAIT to show her friends in her class at church, and she couldn’t wait for school the next day after that. She kept saying, “Everyone is going to looooove my head!”
Throughout the styling day, if I would have counted, Jennifer said at least 25 times, “Mommy, I LOVE my head!” She also told me, “Mommy, I love YOU!” randomly throughout the day, and about every 15 minutes she was shouting to Jayla in her excitement, “Jayla, you want to come see my head?” During each break time she would run to the mirror and giggle, oooh and ahhhh, and shake and whip her hair around. It was definitely the most excited I have seen her – ever. I knew going into this that me doing her hair would come across as an act of love to her, and I think that is what kept me going and made me so excited for us to experience it. It was another step in attachment for the both of us.
Throughout the day, I also experienced an amazing sense of empowerment which came in the form of just plain being in awe of how God equipped me to this. Going into our adoption of the girls I had zero confidence in my ability to do their hair. BUT, I had a desire to learn, and I expressed that desire to God often. He led me to the resources and gave me the tools that I needed to educate myself. Then, He took my flimsy hands and non-hairstyling brain and physically equipped them. I give Him the glory, because I know that in and of myself doing hair does NOT come naturally. I know it sounds strange because we are talking about hair (which seems like a minor detail to most people), but this feels like a supernatural equipping within our adoption. I had no idea that I would ever actually be able to do this! You all remember where I started out right? I didn't even know how to french braid for goodness sakes! Yarn extensions are just a small success in the world of hair, but I definitely feel encouraged by this, and I am excited for when we get to try another style!
In addition to all that, Jennifer’s confidence has SKYROCKETED since these extensions went in. I've noticed a remarkable difference in her in what I can only describe as her coming across as more sure of herself and just plain being more bubbly and outspoken. It’s like her timid-ness went out the window as soon as the hair started going on. Very noticeable change in her personality!
This was also a good learning experience for Jayla. I knew going into the styling day that it was going to be hard for Jayla to watch Jennifer getting all my time and most of my attention that day. In a 4 year old’s world, this was going to feel like sacrifice, and it wasn’t going to feel good. I prayed for her leading up to it, that God would work in her heart. As the styling day started out, Jayla did have a bad attitude and bouts of pouting as I knew she would. I just took those opportunities as teaching moments and took her aside and prayed with her. Each time we talked about 1 John 3:16 and that this day was going to be a little example of how she could ‘lay down her life’ for Jennifer. I expressed to her that sacrifice doesn’t feel good because we are giving up what we want for ourselves. But that is God’s definition of love – acting in the interest of others instead of ourselves. God was giving her the opportunity to do just that during styling day. Throughout the morning I think I took Jayla aside about 3 different times and prayed for her and talked through these truths. By afternoon, the coolest thing happened. God had worked in her heart, and I noticed her attitude had completely lifted by about 2pm. She was excited for Jennifer and became her lighthearted, talkative self again. And God rewarded her change in heart. The neighbor girl came outside to play, and Jayla got to run around and play with her – all by herself! This then, produced tears and a bad attitude from Jennifer who really preferred to go outside and play instead of sit in the styling chair! Sheesh! I can’t win! :)
Alright, to finish out this post, a few more tips regarding the actual style. CHVC has a post about washing hair with yarn extensions in HERE and other tips and tricks for this style HERE.
Jennifer started wearing a sleep cap once these extensions went in, and it really does help to preserve the style through the tossing and turning in the night. She also uses a satin pillowcase which helps with that too. And she wears a shower cap during bath-time to avoid getting them wet unnecessarily.
For daily upkeep, when she takes her sleep cap off in the morning I then straighten out the yarn by taking fists of it on each end (below where her actual hair ends) and stretching it. Takes like 30 seconds to make a trip around her head. Then I have a water bottle with ¾ coconut oil and ¼ water mixed together. I spray that on the twists, but only on the inch segments where her actual hair is. That gives her enough moisture for the day and she is all set!
When I picked Jennifer up from her Sunday school class at church on the first day that she was sportin her extensions the teacher said that her hair was the talk of the class. She said the kids were asking, “Where can we get some hair like that?” The teacher said she had told them that it takes a reaaaalllly long time to get hair like that put in, and that it is reaaaaalllly expensive! Ha! Made me giggle knowing that in fact, it was only a $4 spool of yarn behind that look! And it gave me some more confidence to hear that her style looked like it had been achieved in an expensive salon! Whoo hoo!
With no school on the horizon Chef Justice appeared and offered to whip up his traditional Ghanaian omelets for his sisters this morning...they licked their plates clean!
And for the rest of the day, we've been having fun doing whatever we please!
I would guess that Justice is going to be a teacher or instructor of some sort. Perhaps he will be a teacher in the school system . Maybe he’ll be a coach of a sport. Or become a pastor and teach God’s word. In whatever way, shape, or form, I have noticed that Justice comes alive when he gets to teach someone how to do something. It energizes him to put in the effort to help someone - and in the examples above, he took the initiative to do so with no prompting from anyone. When the 'lesson' comes full circle and the person he is helping finally ‘gets it’ he is just as excited as they are. Justice has also been wired to be a patient old soul. He doesn’t get flustered or agitated by his ‘pupils’ when they don’t catch on right away. He doesn’t yell. He doesn’t roll his eyes. He doesn’t hurry them along. He’s an encourager, and knows how to feed the confidence of others. He takes cues regarding different personalities. For example, he knows that what will work to teach JJ ~ a perfectionist ~ will not necessarily be what works to teach Jayla ~ the light-hearted yet sensitive one.
Jennifer
Time will tell if this is just a fascination with the texture of ‘white people hair’ or something more. Whatever the case, I most definitely could see Jennifer becoming a hair stylist! Jennifer is constantly commenting on her hair, Jayla’s hair, Jasara’s hair and my hair. “Oooooh mommy, I love Jayla’s hair!” That’s what I hear after I slick Jayla’s hair back into a ponytail for dance class. “My hair is coming and my face is changing!” That’s what she says after I pick out her hair in the morning and she takes note of her hair growth. She’s always constantly asking Jayla and I, “Can I do your head?” She loves to brush our hair, put in clips, and section it off into twists. She loves to wash Jayla and Jasara’s hair in the bathtub if they’ll let her. When we change things up a bit and I curl my hair or straighten out Jayla’s hair she is quite captured by the process and gets pretty zoned in. I cannot imagine how excited she is going to be when I get to put a style into her hair for the first time. I knew that I was feeling all that pressure to get my braiding and extension adding technique down for something! I can’t wait until we get to start and she sees the endless options and designs with her hair type as well!
Jayla
“Mommy, when you was little did you always know that you wanted to be a Mommy when you grew up?”
“Do white people grow up to be white mommies?”
“And brown people grow up to be brown mommies?”
“Mommy, where will you be when I am a mom?”
Jayla is in definite “mommy mode” right now! She’s always loved to tote her baby dolls around, but lately I have noticed her literally STUDYING the role of being a mom. All day long I seriously feel like I am at a job interview and she is taking notes on my every word, action, and duty! She’s been asking me all sorts of questions about being a mom like the ones I listed above and others: how do I decide which behaviors lead to disciplinary measures and which don’t?, do I like cooking?, do I like folding laundry?, etc. She has even been referring to her grandma (my mom) as “your mom” when she comes up in our conversations – this is something new where I feel like she wants to label all moms as moms! Since it is just me, Jayla, and Jasara at home now during the day, Jayla is practically memorizing my every move with Jasara and then imitates it all in pretend play later on. She’s got the mom-tone down. She’s tender and sweet when she's in play mode with her brothers and sisters, yet she’ll correct offenses and rehearse the family rules when one of them gets out of line. In addition to all this, when you ask her what she wants to be when she grows up she says ‘a mommy’. She doesn’t even hesitate. Whew! This lil gal is going to keep me humble and on my toes that’s for sure! What I see when I look at Jayla is a future as a caretaker. Jayla has been wired to be sensitive to the physical needs, hurts, and emotions of others. This wiring could most definitely take the form of a full-time mom, or even a nurse. [I would not be the least bit surprised if it also lead her down the path of caring for animals.] I can’t wait until she gets to go to Ghana with us for the first time. I wonder how her future experiences there might ignite her caretaker heart and maybe spark her interest in becoming a foster mother at orphanages some day.
JJ
Oh JJ. A future in sports is just in your blood. No doubt about it. :) Yes, I could picture JJ playing at a high level in basketball or football someday. But what has me even more dumbfounded than his perfect shooting form, or his jab-step-pump-fake, is his knowledge of the game (NBA, NFL, NCAA hoops and football). JJ will spout off random stats about players, or will be able to tell you what play or defense or offense would work best for a particular game situation. He sounds like a 30 year old guy who could be sitting at the ESPN desk going round and round with the top sports analysts. “Bill Walker is a free agent. He was hurt all last year and nobody has resigned him.” That’s just one sentence that I wrote down yesterday out of his random, running log of sports conversations around the house. Who in the world is Bill Walker? Well, thanks to JJ I now know he used to play for the Knicks. JJ knows players and coaches and teams like he knows his ABC’s. He can guess what play the coach is going to call while watching a game, or get into a deep conversation with Jake that includes so much basketball lingo that I feel like they are speaking a different language. The other night we had to giggle because JJ informed Jake that Jake’s former college coach had a game on channel 613 at 8pm. We never would’ve known if it weren’t for JJ. Helping JJ’s cause is technology at his fingertips where he can look up scores and games and the top sports news on the iphone whenever his little heart desires. So JJ, I do believe your athletic skills and sportsminded brain will take you far. I imagine we will be seeing you on Sportscenter someday….either on the court, on the field, behind the telecaster booth, or all of the above!
Jasara
It’s a leeeeeetle to early for me to guess what Jasara might be up to someday. But, I can tell you this: she’s bound to be in charge. You don’t get a name that means “boldness” for nothin.
Lord,
I thank You for the gifts and talents You have placed in our children. I pray that You would develop them in our children and use them for Your glory. Make their gifts and talents apparent to Jake and I and to our children themselves. Show us specifically if there is any special nurturing, training, learning experience, or opportunity we should provide for them. May their gifts and talents be developed in Your way and Your time.
Your word says, "Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them" (Romans 12:6). As our children recognize the talents and abilities You've given them, I pray that no feelings of inadequacy, fear, or uncertainty will keep them from using them according to Your will. May they hear the call You have on their life so that they don't spend a lifetime trying to figure out what it is or miss it altogether. Let their talents never be wasted, watered down by mediocrity, or used to glorify anything or anyone other than You, Lord.
I pray that You would reveal to our children what their life work is to be and help them to excel in it. Bless the work of their hands, and may they be able to earn a good living doing the work they love and do best.
Your word says that, "A man's gift makes room for him, and brings him before great men" (Proverbs 18:16) May whatever my children do find favor with others and be well received and respected. But most of all, I pray the gifts and talents You placed in them be released to find their fullest expression in glorifying You.
Amen.
(prayer from Power of a Praying Parent by Stormie Omartian)
