The Golden Birthday

My little girl is 15.

Fifteen years old on the 15th. The Golden Birthday.

When I think of fifteen years it sounds like such a long time ago; yet it has passed by in the blink of an eye.

My mom will appreciate this picture and memento from fifteen years ago. She (and my sister) were in GA visiting her sister when Joe called with the news that we were heading to the hospital. They hurriedly packed their bags and got to the airport with fingers crossed they could get on a flight to NM with stand-by tickets. While in the air my aunt received this note from the co-pilot and nonchalantly walked it back to my mom. She didn't say anything to my mom except, "Read this."

And then somewhere in the skies between GA and NM my mom found out that she became a grandma. (I'm sure the timing was a bit of a surprise since it had been less than 2 hrs since Joe called to say we were going to the hospital!)

The print is fading, but I think if you click on it you should be able to read it. One thing that has always stood out to me is statement "All is well."

I certainly did not feel that "all is well" at that time; but I can now certainly say that "all is well" indeed. 

Our local water park hosts a few special needs swim nights over the summer. It is after-hours and only for families with disabilities. One of their dates usually falls around the time of Kayla's birthday and for the past couple of years we've tried to incorporate this into her birthday party - but the weather has canceled (darn summer thunderstorms!) it each time. Thankfully, this year, on her golden birthday, it was golden. She finally had her "water park birthday party."

This year before blowing out her candles, Kayla put her hands together (as if in prayer) and said, "I wish my grandfather is in heaven." I don't recall her ever making a wish (we've never really done the 'make a wish before you blow out your candles" thing before) before, much less saying it out loud. The nature of her wish caught me off guard as well (and July 12th was 6 years since my dad passed away). I think my dad's way of saying he's still around is through Kayla.

 She finished a great birthday weekend at the Charleston RiverDogs baseball game (please ignore the fact that they are a NY Yankee affiliate - I have to every time we attend a game!) where the theme of "15" continued with her seat number! This was completely unplanned as we didn't have our seats until we got to the ticket booth and didn't look at our tickets until walking to our section.

This picture cracks me up. She doesn't usually get her head in the right position on these cutout boards, and she often has her hands up by her head so her fingers are sticking out ... but this ... actually looks hysterically realistic!

I'd say she had a pretty great 15th birthday!