Meet my Kids: Kylie

Kylie Rose, Age 13

I don't remember much of Kylie's birth.  Well, let me back up a bit.  I remember every excruciating second of the 22 hours of back labor she put me through.  You know that period of time in between contractions when you can rest for a minute?  For me, there was no "in between" contractions.  It was 11 hours of continuous pain, followed by a blissful 7 hours of epidural, followed by 4 excruciating hours of pushing without an epidural, culminating with my begging for someone to kill me as all 9 lbs. 1 oz. of my first daughter finally made it's way into the world.  That's the part I don't remember.....I was in some other place I fondly refer to as Hell.  I don't remember feeling happy, joyful, or amazed by her birth in those first hours....I was too far gone to care.  The only words anyone clearly remembers me saying were, "I'm NEVER doing this again." 

You might think that God would make up for my disappointing birth experience by giving me an easy-going baby.  Not so much.  She wouldn't nurse, she wouldn't sleep, but she did excel at one thing:  crying.  All day.  All night.  For no reason.  For four straight months.  But then God apparently decided I had suffered enough, and blessed me with the sweetest, best-natured, easiest toddler and child. 

The terrible twos?  Non-existent.  The terrible threes?  Not that either.  And so forth and so on until teenage hormones kicked in, which apparently spare no one.  I guess you could say she now excels at being 13.

Kylie is the definition of the Type A child.  She is the girl in school whom you admired but who also annoyed you because she complained about getting an A instead of an A+.   "Good enough" is not in her vocabulary.  In this way, she is the reincarnation of me as a child, only she is thinner and prettier than I was at her age, which apparently allows you to get through school without being picked on for being so smart.  She is also incredibly humble, which I am proud of.  She's more than I could have ever asked for.  She's my firstborn daughter who I love with all my heart.

She's a follower of Christ.

She a fabulous soccer player. 

She's a talented artist. 

She's a thrill-seeker. 

She's a precious gift of God.