To My Daughter

I got out my external hard drive this evening and found a bunch of old pictures from my old computer. It's not exactly like looking through an old fashion hand held photo album... but it was close. In my next few blogs, I will be exploring some of those pictures.

My daughter will no longer be a teenager as of this coming March. She is the youngest of my two children. My baby. One of the top two on my list of things I was blessed with in life.

K was suppose to be a boy. When I did the whole sonogram thing with both of my children, neither time I wanted to know the sex of the child. My husband was the same. There are always those people who will tell you things like, "You know, I carried my son the exact same way" and the nurses would tell me, "The heartbeat is fast, and that usually indicates a boy" and then my mother's needle test in which a needle is hung from a piece of thread and held above the protruding belly containing the unknown entity, which has never been wrong, not wanting to give a straight answer... it circled and then would swing side to side... circle... and then side to side. I think side to side meant it was a boy and if the needle swung in a circle it meant a girl.
And there were other things, from other family members and in-law members and they all said she was going to be a boy. Then she came into this world and when I asked how "he" was, the doctor said, "What do you mean a 'he'? It's a girl!" And I cried. And my husband was crying. And it is one of the most clearest memories in my life.

She was blessed with the talents of words and song. She began reading at 4 and by the time she was 6, she was already using words I didn't know the meaning of... and was writing short stories. She's always had an outgoing personality, with just the right amount of shyness to not hinder her, yet show off her beautifully sweet personality. She grew into a beautiful woman in about a month's time.

Thank you K, for being my daughter. Thank you for making me laugh until my stomach hurt, for being open and honest with me when it was really important, for the words you write that show your inner demons, for being strong and for letting me see the world through your eyes with your pictures.

Thank you for loving your dad when I no longer could. Thank you for teaching me the things that you have, and for learning the things that I taught you. Thank you for "getting me". Thank you for letting me dress you up, do your hair and put makeup on you.

Thank you for not being a tom-boy.

Thank you for all the kisses, all the hugs, and all the times you have poked me in the boob. (Why you think this is funny, I still don't understand) Thank you K... for being you.