I know that if she reads the title she’ll say that she IS grown up. She’s told me several times lately that she’s not a child anymore. Yes, 16 is much closer to adulthood than childhood, I know this.  What she doesn’t realize is how much I do know this all too well. Her childhood is fading fast into memories for me. But, today I watched her playing with her pet bunny in the yard and remembered all the animals she has nurtured and loved over her lifetime and how cute she was with them. (of course, she hasn’t always been so tender – when she was 4 our Siamese cat tried to steer clear of her at all cost since she thought swinging him by the tail was fun for him – you know like a carnival ride, I suppose.) Except for the tail swinging, she has always had such a wonderful way with animals. She even went all vegetarian for a while in protest to eating animals – it wasn’t right she felt.

My beautiful daughter has grown beyond all I had ever dreamed of in a  daughter. Not only is she a good Christian girl with good looks, she has inherited her grandmother’s raw artistic talent for pretty much anything.  She has now become the family cake decorator and getting better each birthday with her yummy creations. She crocheted gorgeous scarves for more than several of us lucky recipients this past Christmas. Here of late, she has become quite a talented photographer. The only portraits I have ever liked of myself she has done. You always sort of secretly hope that your children will be interested in some of the same hobbies you adopt and in this case I won out. Turns out, she is quite good at it and takes great portraits not only of herself, but her friends. She’s been experimenting with black and white and getting some awesome shots. I could go on and on about how talented she is.

But, I suppose the whole point of this blog was that I just felt like tooting her horn, so to speak. I love all my children and will have things to say about each one as I keep writing on this site, but tonight she was the one that was on my mind.

I think all moms dream of having a daughter and its because we hope that those emotional little darlings that they are when they’re little grow up to be our closest allies and friends. I have been lucky. She is all that and more to me. I know sometimes a relationship between a mom and a teenage daughter can be strained, but the benefits of working through all that and getting to know one another more each day is priceless.

She has many dreams, I’m sure, of what she’ll do someday with her life away from here. I know she loves the Lord and will, first of all, seek to follow His plan. But its so difficult for me to imagine her not living in this house with me that I haven’t even gone there with those thoughts yet. I don’t sit around trying to picture how stunning I know she’ll look in a wedding dress because I still have this picture in my mind of how precious, tiny and beautiful she was in the little pink bonnet and dress she wore home from the hospital. But, when the time comes when she decides she’s gotta move on to where ever her life and God is leading, the only way that I’ll be even slightly o.k. with it is if she is floating away on cloud 9 simply because she is happy – with whoever or whatever she leaves here to live her life for.

Until then, whether she likes it or not, she is still my precious priceless treasure of an “almost” grown up baby-doll!