Happy Birthday 
to my dear, sweet best friend, Hailey.
This is obviously not how you, or anyone, would choose to spend a birthday. Life has apparently decided that a peaceful birthday is simply too boring for you.
But knowing you, you would still argue that you are surrounded by the people you love, and therefore it counts.
Which is very noble and beautiful of you.
Personally, I would also like cake, a nap, silence, room service, and absolutely nobody asking me where their things are, but this post is not about me.
The other day, I was watching Law & Order: SVU, which I realize is shocking information to absolutely no one, and one of the lawyers who worked alongside Olivia Benson said something to her that stopped me in my tracks.
He said:
“The world was an old movie. It was all black and white and it was high noon. I was Gary Cooper… And then you… you started to weasel your way into my world, and the black and white became different shades of gray… Before I knew it, there were blues and greens and yellows and reds. I’m you now, Liv. You opened my heart, and I thank you for it.”
I have been holding onto that quote for days because the way he described Olivia’s impact on his life is exactly how I feel about you.
When we first became friends, I was living in a world that felt very black and white. I was hurting, guarded, stubborn, and probably not particularly easy to “weasel” your way into.
But you did it anyway.
You slowly made your way into my life, refused to let me disappear, and somehow added colour back into places I had forgotten could ever be bright again.
You changed my mind, softened my heart, and changed the direction of my life.
And somehow you accomplished all of that while raising approximately 47 children, caring for everyone around you, surviving things that would flatten most people, and still remembering whether somebody prefers cream or sugar in their coffee.
That is what happens when Jesus lives inside someone.
People feel Him when they are around you.
They want to become better—not because you make them feel ashamed, but because you remind them who they could be by always believing in them!
Around you, people feel convicted but never condemned. They feel safe, they feel important, they feel heard. They feel loved.
You have this incredible ability to carry your own pain while still noticing everyone else’s. You make room for people even when your own life has very little room left to give.
And yes, sometimes you are stubborn.
Sometimes you insist you are “fine” when anyone with functioning eyesight can see that you are running entirely on faith, caffeine, and the emotional equivalent of one remaining chicken nugget.
But even then, you keep loving people.
I know there is so much happening right now. Life is hard. Things are sad. Your vacation ended far too soon, and your birthday probably looks nothing like what you imagined.
I would love to continue writing until this became a full-length autobiography, a devotional, and possibly an unauthorized episode of SVU.
But I will conclude by saying this:
I love you so much.
I am unbelievably grateful that you were born. Thank you, Jeanne, for your contribution to society.
The world is better because Hailey is in it.
My world is brighter because you are in it.
And even though today may not be perfect, you are right about one thing: you are surrounded by people who love you.
And that is a lot of people.
A lot of people whose lives are more colourful because you never give up on them.
A lot of people you have made feel safe, important, heard, and deeply loved.
Happy Birthday, beautiful Hailey.
You mean the world to so many people.
But you changed mine. 
