Memory lane | Lessons from my daughter

Today was Emily’s 17th birthday.

My baby is getting older… And I am so proud of the young lady she’s becoming.

She is the reason for this blog, she is the reason that I am who I am.

My baby is 17.

Her Cri du Chat Syndrome diagnosis doesn’t define her. She defines herself!

Over the years, when other kids went to birthday parties and sleep-overs, Emily stayed home with us.

The thing is, it’s difficult for her to make friends. She has been invited to less than a handful of birthday parties in 17 years.

This year, a couple of really great things happened.

First, she got a birthday card from the Clearwater Marine Aquarium.

Who else got that?

She also got tons of Facebook messages and likes!

I posted on my wall that my baby is 17. My status received 93 likes and 48 comments. I’ve read them all to Emily.

I posted on the Cri du Chat support group and we got 97 likes and 26 comments. Again, I took time to read them all to Emily.

Emily’s runner from the “I run 4 Michael” group posted on the group’s Facebook page that it was Emily’s birthday. We got 133 likes and 27 comments.

If you have a child who is sick or has special needs, you should really look them up on Facebook. Hundreds of runners are looking for buddies to dedicate their training to and build a friendship with. It’s an amazing community. We love our runner Sonia.

Today, my girl received over 300 likes and 101 comments so far. She received birthday wishes from all over the world!

My girl today felt like a rock star and has I took time to show her posts of Hello Kitty and Koala wearing birthday hat, I cried.

It’s amazing how much I have cried in the last 17 years.

Sad tears, happy tears, upset tears, proud tears.

Happy Birthday Baby girl! Thank you for loving me and being my favorite girl. You are awesome.

And, yes! You can have a Frozen theme party for your 17th birthday.

I love you!

I don’t understand why so many people “hate” Mondays.

First, I try to not use the word hate, as I feel the meaning of it is more powerful than any dislikes I might have. I am sure that I am capable of hate, but I hope to never feel it.

Second, if we didn’t have Mondays, whatever day would follow the weekend would be getting all the harsh comments so this is a lose-lose situation.

I don’t mind Mondays, actually, today, I loved it.

1st. I woke up to the sun lighting my room and the birds singing nearby my house

2nd. Emily and I had pancakes for breakfast. When I make pancakes on the weekend, I make too many that way we can have leftover pancakes on Mondays.

3rd. I love my job! Going to work was a break from the chaos when Emily was a baby. It keeps me sane and balance, I love getting lost in my work knowing my family is ok.

As a child, I saw my mom love her job. She was a kindergarten teacher and she LOVED it. She studied at night to better herself and spent some of her own money to better her class. She was a single mom with 3 kids… I never heard her complain.

4th. I love my life!

I take after my mom, she loves life and taught us to appreciate what we had. We were far from being financially rich but we were rich with love. We were rich in essentials. We had a really nice house, we had food, clothes and everything we needed. Not all we wanted… All we needed. As kids, we sometimes felt cheated of things our friends were getting but as an adult now, I can’t believe how lucky I was and still am to have my mom.

5th. Hubby is now working day/evening instead of overnight. He is working from home so Emily as a safe place to be during summer vacations. After 3 years or so on overnight, it’s nice to have him home and to be off together on the weekend. It was nice to wake-up next to him on Monday morning when the house is quiet as opposed to waking-up to the dogs barking when he was getting home.

6th. Over the last week, hubby and I crossed stuff off our to-do list. Still lots to do but this not sleeping all day (for him) on weekends is awesome! I see the light at the end of the tunnel! He even started our small vegetable gardens. This is all really exciting.

So, today was awesome and tomorrow will be awesome too because I will make it! I (and you too) have the wonderful power of being happy. Mom always reminded us of situations worst than ours and to this day, I can find my happy place anywhere.

On a side note, my new notebook (journal) above will help me document my blog…

I am more a journal person than a computer person.

After 2 years of blogging away without a plan, I have realize that I’ve lost track of the stories I told you. 😦

I will take time to document the posts I have written, I will make copies and store them somewhere safe and I will list all the stories I still have to tell you.

That way, I can cross them off as I write.

And because I can’t go to Chapters and only buy 1 thing… (My new journal)

I got a notepad to help me make a plan, 1week at the time.

And a book about decluttering…. hopefully this will give me good ideas on how to organize us a bit more 🙂 And a book full of really interesting recipes.