Eleven Years Old

Well, Bailey is now ELEVEN years old. ELEVEN! I have been informed that this is officially double digits. When I questioned this, noting that TEN was double digits, I was told that eleven is like REAL double digits. Whatever (eye roll). Once again Bailey's birthday fell on the first day of school. Bummer. And this year it wasn't just any old first day of school, it was the first day of MIDDLE SCHOOL! Big-time!

So, this poor Mother has been dealt a double whammy. As if facing the fact that my first-born is an official pre-teen wasn't bad enough, I have to deal with the fact that she is now in middle school....with 7th and 8th grade.....boys. ugh. Isn't there an all-girls school somewhere in Iowa I can send her to? The week before school there were three boys on bikes "visiting" Bailey. This caused Mark to make a quick phone call to Wal-Mart to price-check rifles and me? Well, I am digging through drawers because I'm sure there has to be some Prozac or Zoloft around here somewhere!

How can this be? How can she be eleven already? It just seems like yesterday when I was following the school bus to school with eyes full of tears as she headed off to her first day of Kindergarten. Now look at her.....she's developed into this absolutely amazing girl. So mature, so funny, so smart and absolutely beautiful. Now here is evidence of God's hands in THIS picture...because I'm sure I alone would have caused much more damage than this awesome girl is turning into.

Proud doesn't even begin to cut it as an adjective to describe this mother. I am just awe-struck, really. She is becoming such a wonderful person - someone I would want to call friend (if I weren't her mom). I am so blessed to have been given this job of being her Mom. I just pray I will know how to let go when I need to - and give her the room she needs to continue becoming her own person. (SO HARD!). It will take everything I have though, because really I just want to hold her tight and protect her from the hurt that life brings, the too-grown-up things that she'll be exposed to, the hard choices she'll have to make, and the mistakes she'll undoubtedly make, as we all do. Sigh...if only it were that easy - to shield her from all that....but then I wouldn't be doing my job I guess, would I? Part of my job is to let her go..... I'm just not ready. Thankfully, she still needs me - although it feels like less and less - and she always will need me to some degree, I guess. Thank God.

Happy Birthday, Bailey! You are my absolute favorite official-double-digit girl!

Mom