36 Hours and 18 Years
Dear Anna,
As I remind you every year on your birthday, you took a long time to get here. A long time. Days. Literally. 36 agonizing hours, one hospital kick-out, and lots of drugs later, you were born.
And that seems like yesterday.
So cliché, I know, but while your labor took forever, these last 18 years went by in a series of events, milestones, goals, ballgames, cattle shows, and sibling births that made it all go so fast.
According to your littlest sisters, today you are an adult so you can get piercings, a tattoo and lottery tickets. While I don’t think that’s on your docket today, I do know that you have stepped into your adulthood this past year with a confidence that makes us so proud. We don’t have time to be sad about the 18 years whizzing by because we are so dang lucky to watch the amazing next phase of your life unfold.
I went back and read your birthday notes. Gah. I shouldn’t have done that at my desk today. However, the themes of independence, maturity, responsibility, kindness, thoughtfulness, echo through all my words for you, because they are you. Since I started this birthday blog thing, I have reflected on your life and how it has made our lives better. Your dad and I have had a front-row seat as we watch you figure out who you are and what you love. Just in the past few months, we have been able to sit in on college visits. We have been able to hear your answers about your bigger goals and have watched you piece together that path with such confidence and self-awareness.
But we’ve done that for 18 years: watched you navigate things on your own. Your favorite phrase as a two-year-old was, “all by MYYYYYYYYYYself.” Everything. Everything all by yourself. You went to sleepaway camp without knowing a lot of kids. You told me not to walk you into the preschool art class you took after your first year of preschool because, “I know where I’m going, Mom.” You went to cattle shows with friends, states away without us. This independence has and will serve you well, but know that you don’t have to always do it all by YOOOOOUUUUURRRRself.
Anna, my love, you are an adult, but you’re still my baby. I still see that little face that would smile up at me (and sometimes scream at me) when you were tiny. I still see your hands and feet when you were a toddler, these mitts and skis, that I knew would be able to handle a basketball, hold a halter, throw a disc.
But what I see the most isn’t tangible. I see your heart. I see how you care deeply. Feel everything and take it in before letting it all out. I see your deep devotion to your friends and family. And at the root of all of that, I see your love of Jesus and how this relationship has deepened and affected you in a way that will continue to guide you on your path as a new adult.
Anna Grace, we love you dearly. Happy birthday, dearest darling.
Love,
Mom
Author’s note: For your reading pleasure, here are the rest of my birthday blogs throughout the years.