Sweet Sixteen

My Dearest Kirsten,
I can’t believe we are celebrating your 16th birthday today. I know I tell you all the time, but it seems just like yesterday when I was holding you in my arms for the very first time. I should have known then what your personality was going to be like. From that very first day, you gave this new mommy her first taste of absolute worry, fear, elation, joy, trepidation, and about a million other emotions. I never had loved another human being in my entire life the way that I loved you. It hit me so hard and so suddenly that it was overwhelming. Of course, I loved your daddy, but this love was different. It made me love Daddy even more, because I knew that no other person on this earth loved you even close to the way I did like your Daddy. I was completely and utterly and hopelessly in love with this teeny tiny person. This little person who insisted on not breathing correctly for a few days, even as a newborn, you were determined to do things your own way and in your own time. I know you hear that a lot, how strong-willed, determined, feisty, and stubborn you are. Those qualities can be incredibly wonderful if you use them for good. I don’t tell you as often as I should how proud I am of you. You make me just want to shout from the rooftops how wonderful you are. (Maybe that’s why I have a blog!) I love the way that you really don’t care what other people think about you. Yes, sometimes that drives me crazy, but I sure wish I could be like that myself. I love how you are quick to forgive and how you are a very loyal friend. I love your incredible intellect, and your love for all things literature. It makes me so proud to have a daughter who shows such wisdom when it comes to the truly important things in this life. I love your crazy and witty sense of humor. And I love how you quietly tolerate my own strange sense of humor. I just love being with you, and lately I am realizing how quickly it is coming to an end. The other day we were in the car and just laughing about something and I couldn’t help but think I needed to bottle up every minute of it because these moments of you being a teenager are slowly fading away. Being 16 will be one of the most memorable years of your life. It is such a “sweet” time filled with joy as you truly become an adult, and it is also a very trying time as you are putting away being a child. I hope that as you grow older, that our relationship will strengthen and grow into more of a friendship. You will never out grow your need for a mother, but it will look much different now. Please know that I am always here for you, and will always be a shoulder to cry on, a comfort when you are hurting, and will rejoice with you in your successes! I will be here to watch you fall in and out of love, and will pray fervently for the one whom God has chosen for you. I look forward to watching you fulfill your dreams, develop lifelong friends, finish your studies, begin your career and to finally have children of your own.

Happy Birthday my sweet little Punkin. You are loved beyond comprehension.

I la lu all to way to the moon, and back again. Love, Mom