My baby turns 17

We celebrated Tori’s birthday over the weekend with a big feast, all Tori’s favorite dishes. Thankfully she’s quite a cook and happily made most of it herself. But on her actual birthday, August 16th, we had a mini celebration with mini cakes for everyone. The boys loved decorating theirs with frosting and sprinkles and the girls loved eating theirs 🙂

I can’t believe my girl is getting so grown up. And what a wonderful young woman she is. She is taking a heavy course load this year, her senior year, AP and honors classes, makes me glad I’m not in high school anymore! She wants to be a pediatrician. She has even talked about wanting to become a surgeon so she can go on mission trips to China to help children in orphanages lead a more healthy life. What an impact the adoption of Sophie and Isabelle have had on her 🙂

She is the best big sister, loves playing with the kids and even hangs out with us most ‘family fun nights’ to watch movies and eat popcorn. When she was 12, 13 and 14, I kept waiting for the ‘other shoe to drop’. I imagined miserable teen years of angry exchanges and stony silences. Not that we haven’t weathered a few storms and hurt feelings.

But when Tori was about 14, we came to an amazing understanding and our relationship has been awesome since then. I had to learn to not try and control her, something I was doing without even realizing it. I had to let go of the reins (that I didn’t really have anyway) and turn her over to the loving care of her heavenly Father.

I’m just so crazy about her, I think I’ll just stay in denial a while about the fact that she’ll be going off to college next year … where does the time go?