Celebration!!!!!!

I am so happy, so excited and so grateful. My eldest daughter turned 18 on Tuesday. I can't begin to tell you how great that felt. It was a huge landmark for both of us.

I felt like celebrating that whole day from the moment I woke up, even when she was in school. I spent the day reliving all of the phases of her life in my mind, reviewing my mental photos of her as an infant in a carrier, as a two year old, a preschooler, attending grade school, junior high school, first time driving a car, first date, first boyfriend, first professional concert and now her senior year of high school. I got to be here for all of that.

I was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer when she was 11 years old. I was not expected to survive. I was not expected to see my kids grow to adulthood. My prayer then was to live to see both of my kids reach 18 years old and graduate from high school. It's a very common prayer of women diagnosed with cancer when they have young children. We all pray for the same thing.

I just wanted to be here to support and love my kids at least until they reached adulthood. At least until they were ready and able to begin their own lives independent of me. An eighteenth birthday was a very long way away then, living that long was a tall order.

But we made it, both of us. What a gift. What a cause for celebration. What a miracle.....