Sixteen

Today my daughter is 16 years old. Coincidentally it is also the school’s Homecoming dance. Common wisdom says that time with children goes by fast. Reality is I can’t remember a time when Hannah wasn’t around. Looking forward is the difficult part. It’s been eternity until now but eighteen is in two years.

I’ve been fortunate. I only had to deal with the usual things; throwing up food, learning to do homework, growing up and working through friendship issues. We’re definitely not done with that last one. We didn’t have the terrible twos and haven’t yet experienced the rebellion of the teen years. That one makes me hold my breath. I’ve been expecting it for sixteen years and still no rebellion (he wrote as minor chords swelled in the background). Oddly enough no matter what piece of growing up comes I’m excited about it. It’s an opportunity to stretch and grow.

Life throws a lot of curves at us. You can’t plan you just react. The initial planning for a child meant that sex was scheduled. The rest was difficult to imagine. I couldn’t fathom the love felt nor love received. From the first night up with my sick daughter to teaching her to drive it’s all been a blast. It’s been one curve that we hit out of the park.