365 WORDS...ONE WORD AT A TIME...WELCOME TO OCTOBER!

Yesterday I was struggling, especially trying to write my blog. So today I will write early while the laptop is cooperating. Today is my baby girls birthday...she is my second born and my youngest daughter. Wow how time flies. I REMEMBER so much about her as a baby. I REMEMBER everyone saying she looked just like me. I REMEMBER her laughter and smiles and her favorite toys. I REMEMBER her playing on the swing set at home and the huge ones at the park where I ran around with her. I REMEMBER her hiding behind me as a toddler, the very first time I took her to Gods house and how much she loved it. I also REMEMBER dragging her there as she got older. I REMEMBER her tears when she came home from school....kids had teased her because she was so smart and because of her beautiful dark chocolate complexion. I REMEMBER having to find my baby girl and her elder sister during a tornado and us running with the small tornado right behind us but not yet having touched the ground by Gods grace. I REMEMBER my love for my baby girl and her elder sister being greater than my fear of the tornado. I REMEMBER her love of doing hair beginning when she cut off one of her baby braids with kid safety scissors and then cried because I couldn't reattach it.  I REMEMBER her tumultuous teen years which I wasn't sure I would survive. I REMEMBER her getting bad grades and her telling me she didn't want anyone to think she was smarter than everyone else in her classes. I REMEMBER her lack of doing choirs but turning 360 to help her friends clean up at their families house. I REMEMBER her being listless and always tired...laying on the sofa in the family room in front of the TV. I REMEMBER her story about being poisoned by radiation from the microwave as an explanation for her illness...after which a doctor appointment revealed a bundle of joy. I REMEMBER my baby girl becoming grown up and not wanting any advice from me...always wanting to find her own way in the world even when she was going in the wrong direction or down the wrong path. I REMEMBER her now and again thinking I was giving her the right guidance and I REMEMBER her following it. I REMEMBER looking at a photo of myself in 2005 and noticing I looked just like my baby girl after she was all grown up. I REMEMBER our visit in 2008 and again in 2010 and her not so great attitude. I REMEMBER my tears today as I think of all those memories. I REMEMBER that God said...train up a child in the way they should go, and they will not depart from it. I REMEMBER my prayers that one day that we will be close again...like that small baby girl I brought home and loved and cherished so much. I REMEMBER she is very much, in some ways anyway...just like me.