It's Her Birthday!

It started out for me to be one of those no good, horrible, terrible days. I was grumping around, moaning about a day of meetings I had scheduled because of our regular monthly planning time. No students today...just pieces of paper and bureaucratic nonsense to deal with. Blah.

But! Then I remembered that it was HER BIRTHDAY!! At 4:00 A.M. (or there abouts) she arrived in our home! Literally...we had the midwives come and we delivered our third child in a very serene home birth. Now that so many people have watched the cool T.V. show, "Call the Midwife," we don't freak out folks so much when we tell them about our four, on-purpose, homebirths.

Our second daughter's entrance into the world was really lovely, too. It was just before dawn and SoCal was really starting to heat up. The weather was in the Santa Ana pattern, so by noon we were up in the 90's, which is ridiculous for the ocean-facing hillside where we lived. But, She was completely calm for all of it. In fact, a short time after she was born, I was a holding her on my lap as I reclined on a couch, and she looked at me intently, and then chattered some babbling baby conversation at me. It was so unexpected. It was behavior that is not typical of a child so young. She "talked" to her dad, too. Then, we didn't have her make eye contact nor "talk" to us again, until she was many weeks older, and it was developmentally appropriate. I always feel she was telling me something really important about heaven where she'd just been.

She's spent most of her life making friends, helping others, and being a total ray of sunshine for those around her. She's also spent quite a huge part of it in classes and all that hard work paid off last June as she was awarded the degree of Doctor of Nursing Practice. So, now the "doctor" can officially go out there and take care of everyone!! We love having her in the family.

  I think she was probably approaching two years old in this photo in San Diego.

 Her smile is just irresistible!

Helping to wash the car...it didn't get very clean.

 

Posing like a model on Dad's bike.

 

 And here, she is actually a model in a fashion show at a mall.

 

On a windy day in western Idaho, going for a roller skate sail.

 

Outside the church with Dad and sister.

  

On the pier watching the storm waves with sister.

 

With Mom and sister on the patio.

 

 First day of school!

Last day of junior high in California.

 Matching dresses from our Master's degrees.

 LAST DAY OF SCHOOL EVER!!

Doctor of Nursing Practice

Oregon Health and Science University

2014