Our twins turn 13!!

This has been a special week at our house.  Our twin daughters turned 13 on Saturday. That’s the age we decided marks the first real transition from girl to young lady in our family. My husband’s family all celebrated Bar Mitzvah’s or Bat Mitzvah’s, a beautiful Jewish tradition at age 13.  Since we are Christians and believe in the Old Testament, New Testament and the Grace of Christ, we decided our daughters would celebrate becoming “daughters of Grace,” “Bat Chanan,” with the similar expectation that each begins to put away childish things, prepares herself for the responsibilities of being a young woman and pursues her relationship with God.  Last Saturday our twins celebrated their 13th birthday.  They both had asked to be baptized.  This took place in the ocean here on Maui by their youth pastor.  Down on the beach they had a blessing in Hawaiian and my husband blessed them in Hebrew in addition to a Father’s Blessing in English followed by their water baptism.  We are so grateful to have the influence of our family and friends to surround our daughters with love, laughter, insight, faith and character building throughout their lives.  We asked 13 loved ones to contribute to this milestone birthday by writing a letter to our daughters on specific topics that would speak blessing, wisdom and guidance into their lives.  These 13 letters were a huge surprise!  We’ve made the letters into a keepsake book for each daughter.  We are so thankful to all who’ve contributed to making this 13th birthday have deep meaning and help

 to create a beautiful memory for our daughters to cherish forever.  Our hearts are full. Mathew 28:19