Thirteen years ago.

Thirteen years ago.  Thirteen year ago my water broke in my mom's vehicle in the Walmart parking lot.  Wow - thirteen years ago.  It's hard to wrap my mind around that.  I was twenty-three years old and about to become a mother for the very first time.  I always knew that I wanted to be a mom.  But I really had no clue what being a mom really meant.  I was about to meet that little squirmy baby that had been moving and hiccuping inside of me for the past nine months.  I had all of these cute leopard print outfits to dress her in.  But I don't think that I thought much beyond giving birth at the hospital and playing dress-up.  Meeting her changed me.

We grew together and learned together.  We loved one another and struggled together.  I learned to make someone else's needs come before mine.  But she also taught me how to balance life and make time for myself, too.  Busy became a different kind of busy.  Nights in became more exciting than nights out.  My heart grew and it grew every single day.  Being a mom was sometimes intuitive.  Being a mom was sometimes hard.  But loving her was always easy.

She's growing into such a beautiful young woman.  Someone that I am proud of.  She works very hard.  She knows her faults and works on them.  She aims to please.  When she thinks she's right - she's right.  She has found her passion and lives and breathes it.  She is a planner and thrives on structure and routine.  She really is very much like me when I think about it. 

Here's to many more years of growing and learning - together.  Happy 13th birthday, Baby!