Happy, Happy Birthday Daughts…

I don’t know about you Daughts, but on December 31st I always ask myself the same question,

“Where did the year go?”

I flip through my diaries and make a note of the highlights just to prove to myself that I didn’t spend it being a couch potato or hanging out a tad too long on my yoga mat in shavasana.

An end of year birthday adds to the angst but I learn to write the new date and move on feeling much the same as I’d felt just a few days ago, albeit a year older.  I try to ignore the appearance of a few more white hairs in my eyebrows, the wrinkles leaving footprints across my face and the obvious, no-longer-a-toddler-ness of my children.

Our family photo this year,

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looks a lot different than it did twenty years ago when you were nine!

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Happy, Happy 29th Birthday Daughts!

Twenty-nine years old!  How can that be?!

Right before my eyes you went from infant to toddler to teen.  As the youngest you wanted to catch up really fast and you did!

There was an independent streak that had you changing outfits many times a day,

winding your hair into a ballet bun at 5,

and modifying your clothes (and cutting your hair) with my sharp sewing scissors.

Soon you had danced your way into adulthood

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and when I looked around my last babe-in-arms had vanished to become…

a wife,

a homesteader,

a dog and potential chicken keeper,

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The Kellogg Chicken Koop with matching dogs

a level-headed student,

a hardworking dental assistant,

and a sour-dough aficionado & baker!

I couldn’t be more delighted for you until one day…I was gifted with news that changed my delight into unspeakable joy!

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I hugged you tightly – forget social distancing – and thought once again about the mystery of the passing years.

You’ll understand better now you’re preparing for your own tangible reminder of how relentlessly time flies.

It tricks you, appearing to creep along at a snails’ pace in your day-to-day.

Until you hit a milestone, catch your breath, look back for a moment and all of a sudden you’re 29!

I had four bundles of joy and now here you are carrying your own.

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I hope I’ve taught you to savour every moment,

the rough with the smooth,

the tears with the laughter;

I hope I’ve imparted the importance to keep a piece of yourself to yourself.

To nurture your own life despite the little heart that will run circles around you and draw you to herself.

God has a remarkable way of knitting it all together into the perfect tapestry shared with family and friends,

filled with love, commitment, forgiveness and forever-nesses.

Today it looks like a tenderly prepared nursery slowly coming together in Bo-Ho style,

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the clothes drawer waiting for all those outfit changes.

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I can hardly believe I’m a mother with a daughter with daughter!

“My mother never saw me pregnant,” I said to you the other day, “she wasn’t really interested in comparing notes from 30 some odd years ago.”

“Times were different,” she told me, “No sonograms. No birthing choices. No special tests.  I was in Germany.  I did what I was told. ”

Times were different for me too, no 3D technology to show me pictures of my baby’s face at 20 weeks; I’m blessed that I can marvel at the advances that have come along in those 30+ years and be a part of the miracles unfolding before me.

I can share in the joy sparkling in your beautiful grey eyes, transforming your face into a radiant shriek of delight

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I can share in your wonder and grace and deep faith.

So… although this is a socially distanced ‘Happy, Happy Birthday Daughts…’

…this mother/child bond is like no other,

it is exquisite,

it is unconditional.

It is Mumdom pure and simple!

Happy, Happy Birthday Daughts!

May God continue to bless you.

Your Mum Forever.  xxx

 

 

 

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