From "Growing" a Family to "Giving" a Family

Poppy's 6!!! Boo hoo!!! At our age and in our culture most might consider this to be cause for celebration, and a celebration it was last night, but there's something about this little girl and her growing up that brings cause for pause with hope springing eternal that she'll never change. (We suppose most parents feel this way about their all-too-fast growing children.) But Poppy's the first of what would forever change us "original" five Kruggel's (Victoria, Austin, Annie, Barret & Tom) from "growing" a family to "giving" a family. And that's significant for us because we're not naturally inclined to extend, but rather to retreat, keeping to ourselves. And because Poppy is so easy to love, she made it easy for us to consider loving more by giving more. Poppy needed a family and we didn't, or so we thought. Willow needed a family and we didn't, or so we thought. Piper needed a family and we didn't, or so we thought. And thus our growing family birthed from giving a family. Had Poppy been anyone other than Qing Zu Qiao, perhaps Willow would have remained Wu Hui Xuan, and perhaps Piper would have remained Li Xiao Qian. Instead they're Kruggel's now.

God knew and knows our frailty and weaknesses far more than us (which is a frightening thing to consider), but by giving us our sweet little Poppy-Flower He grew an inward love in us that allowed not only Poppy, but Willow, Piper, and now even Austin, Meagan, Annie, Barret, Victoria and Tom to give an outward love. Going around the table last night during our special dinner with Poppy, we (all 8 of us, including Austin, Meagan & Annie) continued with our tradition of sharing one special thing we love about our Birthday recipient, and for Poppy this is what we said about her:

• "She's one of the sweetest, most tender-hearted people we know."
• "She's one of the most giving people we know."
• "She's one to freely love and show appreciation."
• "She's one to be a big-helper when you need it most."
• "She's one to love her little sister, and big siblings too, in selfless ways."
• "She's one of the most sensitive little souls we know."
  

These words hardly do justice to what we see and experience in Poppy on a regular basis. For those of you that know her, then you can resonate with all of this. And listen, this little girl is far from perfect (we all know that) - she's a sinner and believe us when we write that it's a pretty ugly scene when that comes out. But these things we said about her last night are reasons why Poppy's so easy to love, and these are reasons why we celebrate. And these are also reasons why we never want her to change.

("Thank you, Poppy. And thank you, Jesus, for allowing us to have her for awhile.")

Slowly moving from a growing family to a giving family,