Three weeks…….

In three weeks, my daughter is getting married.  THREE WEEKS!

It’s finally hitting me now. It’s sinking in. There is no turning back.  The dye has been cast. The commitment has been made and they are really doing it.  Her life will never be the same, and neither will mine.

There it is.  That smile lights up my existence.  Every bad thing that was ever said or done in her upbringing is forgotten.  I am flooded with our girl-time memories; road trips, ghost hunts, eating salad and ice cream for dinner, beach time, crying at romantic movies under blankets in our jammies, and freaking out in scary ones and cramming her sandy surfboard in the back of my old Intrepid.

Swimming in our underwear in a hotel pool in Hollywood. Getting tattooed.  Walking back to our hotel in San Franscisco from China Town in the dark and being scared but laughing like idiots. Getting stuck in an elevator in Las Vegas.  Breaking into hysterics nearly every time we both had to sit in a doctor’s exam room, home schooling, and wiping away many tears from broken hearts and unmet expectations.

 

My wish for her is that she will always see herself through her own eyes the way I see her; she will always be the girl with the tender heart, no matter what she might tell you.  She is loyal and strong and incredibly smart, and no matter what color her hair might be each week, she is intensely beautiful with eyes that can see right through weaknesses, lies, and if she loves you, your faults.  If she loves Matthew half as much as she loves her dogs,  and half as much as she loves her Mom, he will be a very happy husband in three weeks.

I am forever your Mom, and forever your friend, Kaitlin.  I love you.