Casey Marie its your birthday!

yeah buddy! today is your birthday beautiful sister!!

 i'm so glad that 10 of your last birthdays have been celebrated as part of our family! i wish the first nine were as well, but i'll take what i can get and i'm so glad you chose us and we chose you!!

i love going on our favorite rides at disney world together. i love the heart you have for your friends. the compassion and care you put into your relationships is staggering. i love how every single time i'm feeling down or discouraged you seem to have "radar" and send me a quick email or text message and brighten my day.

seeing you love on orphans in Guatemala will forever be one of my favorite memories of you. in a way i'll never ever be able to love and understand and pray; you can. casey, you more than me or abi or any of us are able to relate and share the freedom and love and true "adoption" as God's beloved children with others. never forget you have such a calling and responsibility on your life to share that hope with others!! not only did we choose you, but He did first.

(both of my birthday sisters)

i love that we're the most similar sisters. you understand me. abi and nattie can be the goof balls and we can just sit contentedly on the sofa with our books watching them. peas in a pod, we are.

love that you enjoy having me share your bedroom and bed when i come visit home. love that we stay up most of the night talking and laughing (quietly of course...), and reading books in bed. ahhhhhh i love that i can share whats on my heart and you listen and care and keep my secrets. that's what sisters are for; they are secret keepers.

love your sense of jewelry style and all your boots!

girl, you rock the boots! *huge grin*

(felt like tasha was getting left out...love all my pretty sisters...oooo and just noticed i love all of our hair color in this too. since you girls change it up so much. this is how i prefer it, no matter what mom says....*smiles*)

casey, i'm so glad that you are part of this family. i love you. i love the freckles on your nose, your long lovely eyelashes, i love your car (hahhahaha), your music (well, not miley and the jonas boys)...

for all the years i was silly and missed out on you, i'm sorry. i'll take a hundred more birthdays to celebrate you as i wish i did the first few years you lived with us...o how gracious God has been to move in both our hearts and cause real sisterly love to grow!!!

YOU'RE SUCH A GIFT!

(for good measure i had to include this...why did i ever dye my hair brown?!?! what is up with both of us, we look like freaks?!?! *smiles*)

casey girl. i love you. this is your last teenage year of life. next year you're gonna be a big girl.

may this be your sweetest year yet!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!