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Okay, so the HEAT is on folks!
I've heard for several months now;
"Mom, how come you haven't put anything on the blog about my birthday yet and my traditional birthday breakfast with you and dad?"
I responded with;
"It was way back in October, kind of late don't you think?"
She looked at me, you know with that look of "Huh?" and then blurted out;
"NO fair mom, I want you to blog about me so when you gather all the posts from this past year for your blog keepsake book, I'm in there."
Wow, now I felt even more guilty for not complying long ago, as several weeks has passed since that last encounter. For today, I "will" surprise her by posting this belated birthday celebration and beautiful memory.
Without further ado, my dearest daughter, we love you and we are so thankful for the blessing you are to us.
We love celebrating your autumn birthday and treasure you deep in our hearts. As you know since it is well in the past now (sorry baby), we spent the following your birthday in Montreal, exploring and discovering new geographical terrain and listening to the humming slang of French Canadians speaking their native tongue, a language only I understood completely within our family.
The day before we left town, your younger brother was very proud and surprised you when you walked through our door. He had begged to make you a birthday cake. It was grand with twirly whirly candles all over the top.
The icing was spectacular. Remember all that gritty grit between your teeth when it was discovered he used white sugar for it instead of icing sugar? Crunch. Crunch. LOL
There were a few gifts to open from family members, many items were horse something or other in nature, your all time favorite sporty thing to do these days.
In advance, for the first time in your life, you actually had a birthday gift request from us, a super surprise actually as you've never requested a thing before and are always purely content with life overall, no matter if you are gifted, or not.
Your request (blew us away...) was lovely and made your parents speechless! You asked if it might be possible to have a special ring to wear, on your wedding finger to be exact, a purity/chastity ring that would be a reminder of something sacred towards your future.
Some day it would either become replaced you said with a wedding ring or upon your profession day as a religious. We all know you are really hoping God will allow you a vocation of matrimony with many little babies to fill your heart's desire and love of all things baby but since we know not what God has already ordained for us, we trust.
As our discussions together continued to grasp the understanding you were trying to convey to us, we concluded it wasn't a flippant sort of decision, rather much thought to this request had been in progress.
Your father and I decided to get out and shop for the perfect ring one evening, wondering all along what we thought we be the right kind for your request.
First we sought those "chastity" rings at a Christian book store local to us and didn't care for them - at all. After strolling through several other stores, nothing we saw was really entirely appealing, for the "wonderful" we were hunting for wasn't making an appearance.
By this time, your dad and I had been discussing types of rings, and we knew we wanted to allow the ring to have a message of sorts by having three stones if possible to represent the Holy Trinity.
We also wanted a good solid ring, not a cheap one, a ring you could have Father bless for your purpose, and a ring which would become one day replaced by another.
Until such a time as we would find one, we continued to shop and as we strolled along case after case through jewelery stores, I knew that I was flustered not to mention your father (we had to buy it this night!), so I quickly stopped in my tracks to pray for a moment that we would (pretty please) soon find one.
When I opened my eyes, your dad was waving me over, and there it was, merely six feet from where had stood. And it was truly perfect.
Once we were home again with our precious cargo, your father had decided it was something he wanted to do, have a special time with you behind a closed door, no other children present, not even me. it wasn't his typical behavior so I wondered what was up.
Unbeknown to me, he had already formulated a whole presentation in his mind, and assured you the ring would represent a covenant between you and God, and you and your parents.
And finally then, he presented the ring to you, and (amazing!) it was a perfect fit - just exactly your size!
You wanted to delay your birthday breakfast alone with your parents (moi and your papa) because our trip interrupted your timing, so we waited until two weeks later.
You chose "Cora's restaurant" and ate like a queen. Your favorite strawberry filled crepe was huge, and somehow you managed to consume the entire plate full.
Before hopping in our vehicle to leave the parking lot, I was able to snap a photo with your father and the memory of the day was seared in our hearts forever.
Happy 17th Birthday Baby!
We love you!
