Transition

I know exactly where I was 13 years ago right now. I was at the hospital, getting an epidural (I distinctly remember telling the anesthesiologist that I loved him). Two hours later - at 1:16 a.m. on March 22, 1994 - my daughter was born. My first born. She was absolutely beautiful and perfect. She was born 1 week early, and she weighed 5 pounds and 13 ounces. She was a tiny thing. The most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I was in love.

That tiny little bundle of joy will be 13 years old in just a couple of hours. She will wake up in the morning a teenager. I can hardly believe it - where has the time gone? How could she have grown up so fast? Sometimes I just want to yell, "Wait! Wait! It's going too fast!" I want to slow life down and enjoy the beautiful moments more........the moments when my children were babies with curly blond hair and big blue eyes and toothless smiles that would melt your heart........the funny baby things they said and did.........even the middle-of-the-night feedings, when it was just the two of us in the darkness, bonding in love. Sometimes I'll tell Beautiful Daughter, "Can't you go back and be a baby again?" and she says to me, "Mom! I gotta live!" Yes. She's got to live. And I pray that it is a blessed life. She is entering into a difficult time in life......but also a time of fun and opportunity.......from here she steps into adulthood. I hope I am doing my job well. So far so good - I couldn't ask for a better daughter. She is still absolutely beautiful and perfect.

Happy Birthday, baby girl. I love you!