My Baby Turns 18 Today!

Yes, this little baby girl is turning EIGHTEEN today.

This one, our little caboose who continues to teach and mold us in different ways every day. And who astonishes us over and over with her grit and determination and kindness.

I am so emotional writing this post. Oh I am with every one of my kids as I think through the years they’ve been mine. I look through all the old pictures and marvel at the fact that God trusted me with them.

All those years of learning and growing together. Me more often the learner than the teacher. Because kids have a way of shifting and heaving all your motherhood expectations, don’t you think? Oh sometimes that is maddening for sure. We want control as mothers. But if you’re looking to be taught, you realize they have the power to make things even better than you imagined.

I’m even more emotional writing this birthday post today because my very last baby is an official adult.

How have the years flown by so quickly??

So Many Things to Love About Lucy

I have put together a video of so many people who love Lucy saying one thing they genuinely love about her and it’s been so fun to preview all these loves. Oh there’s so much to love about Lucy. But we’ll narrow down to eighteen of them for today.

1) Lucy is unique.

And she celebrates that. From her beautiful blue eyes (the only one in our whole family filled with brown eyes) to her quirkiness, she likes who she is. And is herself through and through. Let’s take a look at these beautiful blues:

2) Lucy is tough.

She has been to more doctors than we can count, put under anesthesia over and over, waited in more waiting rooms, been prodded and poked and examined more than anyone I know. Even sometimes on her beloved birthday.

This has become more emotional through the years. This particular kidney ultrasound last summer had her in a nervous ball of emotional worry leading up to it. I mean, jelly on your stomach so they could look at kidneys? Lots of worry anticipating that one. But she asked the ultrasound tech every question in her book to ease her own worries and it worked. She came out triumphant.

She always does. Because this girl has got grit! And she is so grateful for all the doctors do for her.

3) Lucy is fun.

Lucy is for sure the life of the party.

She is a game queen, which means she makes sure we gather together way more often than not and play games.

Which leads to conversation and more love in my opinion. She is also a card shark and could win prizes for her trash talking. Ha!

4) Lucy is a hard worker.

She has to work so much harder than most at things like school. Honestly most of the time she works from the time she gets home to close to midnight on homework.

And that doesn’t include the hard work she’s doing in school trying to see things her teachers are working to teach.

But she does it with flying colors and is so smart!

5) Lucy exudes excitement.

Whether it is for games or sunsets or her favorite animal, the lion, she is full of hype and adoration for the things she adores.

6) She loves nature.

There is just something in nature that speaks to her. I’m convinced she can feel it in her bones. Take for instance this sunset in Newport. Do not take her away from enjoying that beauty for a picture for crying out loud!

Sunsets (and sunrises although we don’t get those as much) just make her light up.

7) Her smile.

Is the best smile in the world.

She can light up a whole room with that thing!

8) She FEELS things.

Like the sunset she feels, Lucy has the capacity to feel most things so deeply. Sometimes it is hard things she feels. She aches to have her vision. She aches to be able to build on her dreams. And sometimes this deep feeling turns to heartache. But I think those “hard feels” have the power to bring her to the amazing deep feelings like the spirit in the air around her.

She’s not afraid to be still and take it all in with her heart. Oh she works so hard to open that heart of hers to God. To her questions. To her feelings (and she has a lot of them). And because she’s ok to sit in her feelings, I pray with all my heart (and wrestle with God on this one), that the good feelings will win out on the tough things and that she’ll fight to keep feeling the love of so many around her.

Here she is in the Sacred Grove this summer letting it all seep into her heart.

She FEELS nature in the rain too, and rejoices in any rain storm.

9) Lucy is BRAVE.

It’s not like she doesn’t feel the fear. She just does things despite that fear. Just like the kidney ultrasound this last summer. But she braces herself and does things anyway.

Here she is heading off on another solo flight this summer.

Determined she could do this alone. Even without being able to see where she’s going.

10) She is determined. And full of grit.

This paddleboarding skill she has gained makes us a little emotional every time. Kids with BBS don’t have the best dexterity or coordination in general. Plus she can’t see well. But one summer Dave and I looked at each other and decided it was time to teach her to paddle board. And you know what? That girl, full of determination, made it happen.

I still don’t know how she does it, but it gives her so much joy.

Another example of grit at girls camp on the hike. This happens pretty much every year. She puts her might into maneuvering all those rocks and angles with her cane, and makes it happen.

(Along with some really loving leaders.)

One more thing she’s determined about (among many). Figuring out college. Here she is following the pack on a Boston University tour last summer. Determined she’s going to figure out the very best place to go to college next year.

Oh wait, one more! She is so determined with school work and lugs around this huge backpack with her magnifier every day.

11) Lucy is a musician.

She fills up our home with her hard-won talent as a pianist and I’m telling you, it is so beautiful! There is something so calming (to her and to us) to be able to sit down at the piano and make it sing.

This is so tricky with her dwindling vision. I mean, you see that music there in front of her, but that’s just for us to teach her the notes. She somehow memorizes right where to put her fingers, and somehow despite that low-dexterity so common in BBS kids, she makes the piano sing.

And speaking of singing and music, she loves her choir and finds so much joy in singing.

12) She’s an adventurer.

Lucy will be the first one to be up for an adventure. Well, it does have to be her kind of adventure, but she’ll jump to doing things like a “polar plunge.”

13) She is strong-willed.

It’s interesting on this video I’m making for Lucy’s birthday (filled with people who love her saying one genuine thing they love about her), one of the two most common things people say is that this girl is GOING places because of her strong will. She knows what she wants and will go to great lengths to make it happen. She has dreams she’s going to make come true. Sometimes those dreams turn out to be a little different from what she expects and hopes, but she is going places because of that strong will (that sometimes I think is slowly killing her mother…ha!) So grateful for it though!

14) Lucy is so good at saying she’s sorry.

Sometimes that strong will up there will result in some serious huffiness about things. As she is learning to manage and channel her opinions, passions and strong will, she will sometimes do things that hurt. (like we all do). And what I love so very much about Lucy is that she will sit in her anger for a little while and then she will spill out so much love and apologies. Sometimes in the form of millions of hearts in a text.

This may be my very favorite thing about Lucy. Her heart is golden.

15) Lucy is an incredible baker.

I’m telling you, this girl needs to start a cookie business. For real.

She gets out her magnifier and her special measuring cups and the ingredients she has learned to maneuver without good eyesight and whips up some serious deliciousness.

I think it is honestly a super power of Lucy’s.

I’ll let you know when she’s ready to take orders, she is incredible.

16) Lucy is KIND.

She is ALWAYS and forever complimenting people, thinking of little services to do for people, writing her signature kind notes for people and wanting to deliver them (of course complete with her signature cookies).

She’s always asking if people are ok and dishing out the compliments. Really aware of the feelings of others and it’s such an amazing quality.

17) Lucy is organized.

From the time she was little she has been an organizer and she’s so good to keep her mother in line:)

18) Lucy is a planner-extraordinaire.

With everything in life this girl is a planner. Especially when it comes to birthdays. She has it planned out to a “T” every year. And she’s sad when it’s over.

Ha!

But this girl has a serious plan for us today so I better leave this post and get in gear!

For now, I’ll just leave on this sunset of Lucy’s childhood.

How grateful for all Lucy has taught us and helped us learn for these last eighteen years.

I cannot wait to see where all her grit and determination and love and kindness takes her in life.

This girl is going places!

Love you FOREVER Lucy!