13 years

13 years ago tonight was nothing special. I went to bed expecting to get up the next day and try to find something to busy myself while waiting for our first baby to be born. She wasn't due for another 11 days, and although the doctor had recommended I stop working about a week earlier due to the fact that she might come any day, the lack of any meaningful activity had me bored and resigned to waiting it out.

But 13 years ago tomorrow, everything changed. Some very definite activity in the early morning hours sent us straight to the hospital, and at 8:52 a.m. Sydney made her grand entrance into the world and our lives. A tiny baby, weighing just under 6 lbs. and nicknamed "Peanut" by the nurses, she captured our hearts and has held us captive ever since.

13 years ago. So hard to believe. People warned us that the time would go so fast, but when you are in the midst of baby-and toddler-hood it is hard to see past the current day. And it is easy in those days to be complacent, irritated even, with the slow speed of time. But somewhere along the way -- I can't even exactly pinpoint when -- the days got shorter, and then they blurred into each other, and then they became an unstoppable whirlwind that sucked us in, until now we look around and 13 years have passed and we wonder how it got to be so. And we look at sweet Sydney and wonder when she grew up.

Sydney. Words fail me at the beauty that is this girl. So beautiful, and confident, and willing to embrace life. So complex, and moody, and headstrong. But so sensitive, and loving, and wise, always so wise beyond her years.

The other day I heard a lecture on the state of the modern family, and the comment was made that a child's personality and character traits are largely formed by age 12, so that by the time the child enters the teen years the person you see -- their strengths weaknesses, inclinations -- is pretty much the person they will be in adulthood. If that is true, then I am so proud of Sydney and of the job that God has enabled us to do in raising her. And now I just pray for wisdom and the strength for the teen years. But most of all I pray for the ability to cherish each day that she is in our home, because I am now achingly aware of how few are left.

Happy Birthday, Sydney. My sweet girl, my beautiful teenager. I don't know where the years have gone, but they have taught me this above all -- to hold on tight to you now while I still can.