November 3

Today is Abby's 18th birthday. One of my babies --my first baby, the one who made me a mom-- is an adult. It's surreal. Good, but surreal.

I spent the morning and early afternoon hours doing some last-minute prep work. Following some time at another new-to-me Mother Ship (because why not visit them all?), I bought a (what was labeled as and what I therefore naively assumed was) chocolate cake with pink frosting and flowers and a little tube of white writing icing, which I later used to carefully pen "Happy 18th birthday, Abby!" on said-cake.

Then I packed up my bag for the flight home tomorrow and relaxed in my hotel room until she texted that she was ready for me to come over at about 3. So I got everything together --the cake, a big bag of presents, plates and utensils, my purse, and chips, cereal, soup, and candy for her snack stash -- and drove over to her dorm.

Her friends Anna, Laura, Michaela, Meredith, and Ashley all came by soon after for cake (which, despite its label, was actually a marble cake and not chocolate, much to my consternation... watching her slice into that wrong-colored cake felt like a gender reveal gone wrong) and to celebrate the day. I chit-chatted with them a little, but mostly I sat on a chair mostly out of sight and just listened to them talk and giggle and burst into song. It was a beautiful thing.

Then she and I went off to Chili's for her birthday dinner. While we were there, she asked me if I thought she could have crayons for old time's sake, so I asked the server and she brought her several. And then after waiting most of the day, the actual hour of her birth rolled around, and voila, 18 became a formal, official Thing. 

And then we returned to her dorm, where we piled up the presents and video-called Adam, Isaac, and Brady. After we sang Happy Birthday, she unwrapped gifts (which included a teeny-tiny Flynn Rider from one of those Disney blind sphere thingys, which fully amused her because she'd just been joking that she'd like him to ride up for her birthday, a huge amount of cheese from Isaac, and lots of other fun things). It was good fun. 

And then since she had history reading to finish, I headed back to the hotel. I would say that I've been reflecting on what it means to now have an adult child, but honestly, I haven't. I've been thinking about how good it's been to be here with her this week, and about what a blessing it was to be with her in person on her 18th birthday. She's always been a good girl, a good kid. And now she's a good young woman. A good adult. So for all of that --for all of the phases of her life to date and for all of the iterations of Abby that I've been given the opportunity to see and enjoy and for all of the qualities God gave her that help make her amazing-- I am grateful. Happy birthday, Abby! I love you!