How Lucy’s 18th Birthday Rounded Up

I’m still a little bit in denial that Lucy turned 18. How did that happen so quickly? I wrote all about 18 reasons I ADORE that girl, but here’s what happened on the real-deal day:

But I don’t think there could be a better place for that girl to turn into an official adult than to be nestled amidst incredible Fall beauty in Utah, and cousins she adores.

But let’s start at the beginning.

There is a lot of emotion swirling around birthdays for this girl. Especially the one that makes you an official “adult” when your disabilities get in the way of so much “growing up” in life.

It was a tough one for me and Dave too. Especially with all the huge question marks as to what will happen next year looming huge an ominous in front of us.

But this girl knows how to do birthdays I tell you. She is a “birthday girl” through and through, always making sure everyone else is celebrated on their birthdays. She sure will let you know how she wants to celebrate her own birthday too. So we had a good plan, and we were crossing our fingers it would all work out.

Birthday Breakfast

As I watched this beautiful girl of mine across the table at breakfast, gracefully glowing with gratitude for little gifts like the ream of paper she requested and a candy bar poster, my heart swelled and my eyes welled with so much love for her.

I’ll get to one more thing at the breakfast table at the end, but it I loved that Grace, Abby and Murph with us too.

Autumn Leaves

After breakfast we headed out to take in God’s glory in the form of Fall leaves in Utah. Lucy cannot see the leaves very well, but just like sunsets, I believe she can feel them.

We took Guardsman’s Pass…

…and walked Cascade Springs:

It was the same route I had taken with friends a couple weeks before, so different now but still so beautiful.

Rowley’s Red Barn

We made it through all that gorgeousness to go apple picking at Rowley’s Red Barn (one of Lucy’s favorite places). With some of her favorite people.

Including these darling cousins…

And my sister Saydi who had this idea in the first place.

These guys lovingly kept their distance because Lu was a little weird about it. More about their part in another post…

The apples were delicious.

The light was so beautiful.

And Lucy loved it all, and so did we.

Birthday Dinner

We headed back to Grace’s house where we met up with Max too, and had Lu’s favorite dinner (Apricot chicken, accompanied by corn, of course):

And sweet Lu arranged for her college friends (friends from home who had graduated last year and headed up to Utah) to join us for cake and ice cream.

Oh I love those darling girls. And also that Lu had made her “cake” herself the day before. Her beloved pumpkin bread.

Her Favorite Gift

We were breathing a sigh of gratitude as we headed home. So grateful for all the angels and goodness that made this celebration such a good one.

But my favorite part of the day? It was sitting next to Lu watching her watch her birthday video after breakfast.

I had been gathering little video clips from all the people who love her and had put them together in a video for her. All those videos had made me so emotional as they came in. Words of affirmation are definitely Lucy’s love language and to have all those sweetest things outlined by so many people for over an hour of love packed in a video made us both just well up with tears.

How grateful I am for LOVE. How it buoys us all up. And for all those amazing things about my girl spilling out of her phone, ready for her to watch again and again any time she is feeling low.

We are the luckiest to have this amazing 18-year-old in our midst, all celebrated and on to serious college applications.

Love you forever Miss Lucy!

Can’t wait to see all the places you will go.