So Sweet Sixteen

Sixteen years ago today I was ready to have my first baby.  We didn't know whether we were having a boy or a girl, but I wanted a girl in the WORST way.  I was convinced that I couldn't handle a house full of boys and I thought if I got a girl out of the way, I'd be all set.  And besides, girls are SO much fun to dress! :)

I remember the day before she was born, whining to Glenn that I was SO ready to not be pregnant anymore.  And I was a week before my due date!  And my pregnancies were easier than many.  I rather enjoyed being pregnant.  But I was over it at week 39.

God took pity and I went into labor very early the next morning.  We labored at home for awhile and went to the clinic around 9am.  They sent me to the hospital and my darling baby girl was born at 2:06 pm.  It was a girl!  That was the best part - the surprise of is it a boy or is it a girl?  I had convinced myself it was a boy because that's what everyone was guessing and I didn't want to be disappointed by hoping for a girl and not getting it.  It was a girl!  A girl!  Little Nicole Crescentia was born and she was ours and she was perfect.

She's still pretty perfect.  But she's growing up too darn fast.  In the thick of diapers and tears (mostly mine!) and bottles and breast feeding, I didn't think I'd ever make it.  Now I'd go back in a heartbeat and soak it all in.  Guess I better soak it in a lot over the next two years, because that's what I've got.

Thank you for your sweet patience and kindness and love, my dear Nicole.  God bless you and keep you always.  I'm so proud and humbled to watch you grow into an amazing young woman of faith and kindness.  Keep doing what you're doing.

But slow down, okay?! <3