Happiest of birthday celebrations to my incredible daughter!
I won't be able to be a proper helicopter Mom, doing all the birthday things Moms of adult daughters with four children are prone to do, (eg. protecting a long birthday afternoon nap), until we're all at the cottage together.
But for today.
Can I just say that you are to me, in every possible way, remarkable.
Who you are and who you are becoming is more than I could possibly have imagined in those first days of cradling your sweet baby face in my hand. And now your face, your smile, your whole countenance bears the strength and beauty and honesty of deep character, fierce tenacity, and unspeakable faithfulness.
This, so much, so much, in spite of me.
I've been reflecting of late on the absurdity of the biology of parenting. Why is it set up, do you think, that our bodies are best able to birth children at a time of life when we are still figuring out who we are ourselves?
Why, when wisdom is so badly needed in the guidance of the most vulnerable of souls, is it not until after we've raised them that we even begin to get little snippets of it?
How ironic that the skills and character required to parent are actually developed over there years of parenting itself! And by the time you think maybe you have the swing of it, the job is done and it's time to release your child.
I haven't formulated a resolution to this yet. It may have something to do with the fact that for centuries upon centuries families raised children intergenerationally, whereas in our industrialized, independent households age, we more or less let young parents fend for themselves. I'll have to do a bit more research here.
Until then, and regardless, both Dad and I are so incredibly proud of you. You changed our lives, not just the day you were born and we actually became parents, but all throughout your growth and becoming, as you kept on becoming, and keep on becoming, all you were created to be. We are not the same because of you, all of you.
And if they lined up all the adult daughters of the world, and they asked me to pick just one....
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