There is something about Laura that I don't mention enough. She is perfect. I know, I know...mothers love and all that. But I look at her sometimes and wonder what I did to be rewarded in life with this lovely creature. She is beautiful, no question...her luminous blue eyes and long gold hair, her trecherously long legs and quick smile. But there's more. She is funny and kind and eager to please and smart as a whip.
Don't get me wrong. She has her moments. She is especially hard-headed with her dad on weekends when I'm working (or so I hear). She has a tendency to coccoon herself in her room and deny the other girls entrance. She puts off (and off) her reading assignments and chores. She's been known to talk back....though rarely to me.
I so treasure what she and I have. She is open with me, enjoys hanging out and talking, rarely complains. She is just a bright shinging light in my life. I enjoy her company, I revel in her accomplishments, and I take nothing for granted. All of my other kids have things about them that make them precious to me. I have talked about them all in this blog, except Laura. Maybe I haven't written about her because she causes me so little worry. I think it's easy to overlook the "easiest" child because it's the others that NEED so much. But I don't do that intentionally.
Laura was my first daughter. I remember the ultrasound where Patrik and I found out she was a girl and I just wept and wept for joy. I LOVE my boys, but was so thrilled to be getting a daughter. And this kid hasn't disappointed! She is lovely in every sense.
I am proud of her and love her and respect her. I am so afraid that our relationship will become like so many of my friends' relationships with their daughters when puberty hit...distant and sulking and moody. So I try very hard even now to let Laura know that she has my respect, my ear, my shoulder whenever she needs it. I would just fall into dispair if she pulled as far away from me as I have seen some teenage girls do. It would shatter me. I know I must give her wings, but not yet please, and not like that. I am blessed that the boys never really went through that stage with me, that they STILL feel that they can tell me anything (sometimes that's wonderful, sometimes downright shocking!). I hope and pray the girls will be the same with me. I never went through that particular teenaged angst with my mom. I always felt close to her, wasn't embarrassed by her presence, still kiss her goodbye. This is what I want with the girls. This gift that my mother gave me, of knowing I am loved and honored no matter what, this I want to share with my daughters. (Thank you, mom)
Laura is the oldest. She will go through most of life's changes and challenges first. I watch her grow and already wonder where my baby girl has gone. And then I look into her eyes and see she is still right here, with me, for as long as I can keep her.
I don't know what our future holds, but I know this: for all of her life, I will forever be her soft place to fall.
