My Amazing Kids

I have the most amazing kids.

My youngest daughter has such an eye for art. She doesn't even realize how good her eye is for composition, for color harmony, for light and posing. She has no interest at this point in photography (mostly, I think, because all the controls on a camera baffle her, like they used to do to me, and still do on occasion). It's tough when you're right-brained, and you know what would look great, but you have to learn those manual creative controls on the camera to get what you're after. Anyway, she wants to go into counseling. She's not quite fifteen, so she has some time to figure out what she wants to do. She listens to God, so she'll get it right in the end.

My oldest daughter is in college in another state, actually two colleges, getting a dual degree in nursing and Bible. She is getting such good scholarships that she's practically getting a free ride--she sent me a huge check today because her scholarships and grants exceeded by double what she needed for the semester. And, she paid off her car! The truly amazing part is that she voluntarily sent me a huge amount she could have kept to make her life easier, but she sent it to me to pay toward the nominal college loan I've had to take out on her.

There isn't even enough cyber-space for me to tell you all the reasons I'm proud of my girls.

My middle daughter is an absolute blast. Like my oldest, she will be 20 this month. Her favorite things to do are to have a balloon go whizzing past her head because I blew it up and let it go, to have Dr. Seuss read out loud in an animated voice, to have bubbles blown around her head, and to play "catch" with a soft ball (as long as the thrower strategically aims toward her lap, so she can catch it). She has no teeth (her last ones got removed less than a year ago), so she makes the absolute most hysterical old-lady faces. Sometimes I think she does it just to make me laugh. She can't talk and tell me, so I have to guess. She has a purple and black wheelchair, and a love of life that makes me smile when days are very long and hard. She is my sunshine. And I know she loves me, because she yawns every time I kiss her. She doesn't do that for anyone else, just me.

I have the most amazing God. Much has gone wrong in my life, but these girls make everything right with the world. God knows me so very well, and he gave me these three kids who are so very different, and so very perfect for me. I love them all so differently, but I love them all equally.

Did I tell you that my kids are not perfect? They're not. Heaven forbid! What would they ever do with me if they were! They would have thrown their hands up, as soon as they were old enough to walk out the door, and said, Enough already! The woman's nuts! Save me! But instead, they were given to a mom who loves them with all their bumps and wrinkles. Call it unconditional love, or call it self-preservation....I mean, if I love them that way, they have to hang in there with me during the tough times, too, right? That's just good planning, the way I see it. I won't be a lonely old lady.

You gotta know you've done something right when you're the one your kiddo calls from college just because she wants to talk. You gotta know there's God (I didn't say a god, some random impersonal being, but God!), when you mess up like I have, and have these kids to show for it. You gotta know!