Post #900. Happy Birthday Sarah, December Girl.

I am posting this early so that Sarah will have a chance to see it because the Birthday weekend (December 10) will be BUSY! ☺
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Dear Daughter,

I won't repeat all of what I wrote in your card, which basically sums it up and is more in the way of Motherly advice, but I will repeat this statement ~

You are the best gift God has ever given me.

The Friday of Thanksgiving weekend while you were away at your Dads and I was standing on a chair leaning into the Christmas tree installing lights, I had a flashback moment that I think of probably every year at this time.

It was around Thanksgiving weekend in 1995. I had already stopped working and was on my maternity leave because I was never one to work through everything ~ All I ever really wanted was to be a stay-at-home Mom and I knew this was the beginning of no return, at least for a while.

I was determined that your Dad and I would have a normal Christmas celebration, even with a newborn baby and we had already made plans to travel with you on the 3 hour drive to Grandpa & Grandma's for Christmas with the entire family (which we did and you were only 2 weeks old!).

Remember... at this time that November, the doctor said you could come any time because according to him, I was "due in November".  Honestly, your actual 9-month due date would have calculated at December 7.

So, determined to have everything fully organized, the way I've always been, I was working on the Christmas decorations and standing up on a chair, leaning into the Christmas tree, 9-months pregnant, installing the lights and ornaments.

It's just a simple memory, but one that I always think of each November with a smile because it's crazy how I thought I could keep everything so organized, so contained within the compartments of my life, even as I was about to give birth.

I remember sweet little old Ann Darnall, from our church in New Lenox, patting my hand and reminding me that babies come in their own time, not our time, and I ended up being able to tell her a couple weeks later into December -  "Nope - the baby is going to be delivered on Sunday, December 10th, because that's when the doctor scheduled for me to be induced", and that's exactly how it happened, according to schedule.

You were remarkable right from the beginning.

Look at that first photo below - it's about as attractive as my first photo, but my Mom will always defend it by reminding me that I almost died, and literally I did, as you could have. But we're both fighters.

When your heart beat dropped down to a low 60 bpm with an obvious struggle with the umbilical cord, you fought right through it and although a nurse told me afterwards that my charts were marked cesarean section, Dr. Rodriguez knew that I didn't want that and while it probably put us both at risk, everything obviously worked out as it so often does.

What emerged was a beautiful baby girl with her eyes wide open and observant, a large skull (highly intelligent!), and remarkable control of her neck as she glared around the delivery room at everyone. 

I cried finding out it was a girl which is what I always hoped for, and then I got really sick.

You had a perfect 10 on your apgar. Go figure. 

My Mom, who was there through the entire birth, remarked at how alert you were  by saying "Oh boy, you're going to have a time with her!"

From that time forward, I've always thought about Dr. James Dobson's comment in the Strong Willed Child book:

Just as surely as some children are naturally compliant... there are others who seem to be looking for a fight upon exit from the womb. Such a child comes into the world smoking a cigar and barking orders in the delivery room...

I love that comment.

That's you to a tee and I wouldn't change one single thing about you.

There's your one and only professional photo from childhood above. We just never spent money on those kinds of things and besides, I've been a major picture-taker all my life. To me, any photo I could take, would be just as cherished as any professional ones.  

But I still love that photo. Your Dad always reminds you how he hated that they gave you a block to play with to bring on some smiles and then they took it away.

The Gerber Baby.

That's what an upstairs neighbor at our apartment in New Lenox called you. Everyone would coo over you. You were so animated and yet serious. 

And smart! You've always been smart and we knew that, as all good parents do of their children, but we knew there was something insanely smart about you.

It's probably a good thing we didn't have any others after you, because I would have been expecting them to talk like you did so very early on and all the other things you did so well advanced of your peers.

It came as no surprise then when you achieved a really high score on the number of IQ tests at the end of first grade and was placed in the Gifted Program for all the years that it was offered.

It was always me who made more of a fuss over that than you, probably because kids just want to be kids and they don't want to be classified as "gifted".

But I'm telling you, what a blessing it is that God blessed you with such a marvelous level of intelligent reasoning and so many creative, artistic qualities.

"Miss Sam", your Sunday School teacher, and professional child development educator, shared with me once how remarkable your level of compassion was for someone who was just two years old.

While other children, especially single/only children, had difficulty sharing at that age, you exhibited such a caring spirit towards the other children and sharing was never an issue for you.

I'll always remember how you were kind to the underdogs in school, something that I hope you never lose, even in the midst of all of the high school drama.

That's the thing about high school. I know that it seems like right now it's the only thing in the world, but the other day, Jim and I were talked about our high school years and had difficulty even recounting much of those experiences.

The few people we can remember from that time, are either people we stayed in touch/reconnected with online, or were simply very true friends all along.

The rest are simply forgotten.

I hope that this Birthday and this week/weekend of surprises is all that you hoped for and that it might be one of those lasting memories.

If not, at least you know - there will be photos.

     There will always be lots and lots of photos. ☺

Happy 16th Birthday to the Sweetest of the Sweet!

All my love,

Mom