Dear Zayne,

Sunday March 14th 2010 was very special. That was the day that mommy and daddy made a commitment to God that we will do everything in our power to raise you according to His word and His way. We made this commitment with your brother and sister when they were babies too. We promise that we will raise you in a Godly way and teach you about how God sent his son Jesus to die on a cross for our sins and how God then raised Him from the dead so that we may live an eternal life in Heaven IF we repent and strive to live for Jesus. We will teach you how to pray. We will pray with you. We will pray for you. We will do our best to be GOOD living examples for you to follow. We will teach you right from wrong. We teach you about a love that is second to none and teach you how you can turn Jesus in every area of your life. Along with these things I promise:

you can jump in the rain puddles...sometimes I'll jump too.

I will try not to rush you when you want to show your independence.

We will use glitter, glue, paint and all things messy on occasion.

You can play in the dirt and dig for bugs and I'll TRY not to freak out when you try to taste the mud.

to NOT let you stay in your room by yourself on the phone or computer.

to give you space BUT I promise that I WILL be in your business because I love you.

to not to say "Go play" all the time but to say "Let's play" more often.

to let you help me cook and clean :)

to listen to you even when I already know what you are going to say.

to watch your eyes sparkle when you are excited.

to let you make bad choices and help you fix those bad choices.

to think twice about saying no unless it is harmful, unhealthy, or most importantly not biblical.

to tell you when you are about to make a mess but to let you make it and then to make you clean it up so you can learn about consequences.

you can play in the bathtub until your fingers and toes are all wrinkled and the water is cold if you want.

I will take the time to look at the pretty flowers or that cool 'digger' with you.

We will stop at the train tracks until the train is gone so you can watch it.

We will laugh, hug, play, and sing together.

We will take the time to look at the clouds and decide together what they look like.

We will talk about how beautiful the sky is and who made that sky.

We will sit on the floor and play with your toys...you can show me how you want me to do it.

I will let you teach me things and remember that what you teach me is just as important as some of the things I teach you.

I will watch you sleep at night and cherish those moments and burn them into my memory so that I'll never forget how wonderfully made you are.

We will focus on today and try not to worry so much about tomorrow but we will also do our best to be prepared for the future.

I promise that we will let you down and I promise that you will let us down too. But in those times we will forgive each other and move past those things because you are our son and we are your parents and the only love greater than that will come from the father above.

There are many more promises I want to make to you but you need me right now so I'll stop for now.

Love,
Mommy