Eighteen

Last year, when Danni turned 17, I spent quite a bit of time going through old pictures and basically putting together a little montage of her life, which you can see here if you're interested.

Danni is my oldest child, and today, at 12:21am this morning, she became a legal adult. That sort of blows my mind.

We're not with her now, but the other two girls and I just got back from a trip to Arizona for our spring break, so we had an early birthday dinner and cake for her while we were there.

It's been a difficult year for all of us. At the beginning of the year, she didn't want to move to Colorado with us. She wanted to stay in AZ for her senior year of high school. We respected her wishes, and she is living with my parents this year in AZ.

Throughout the course of the year, some things happened that I think made her wish she would have just come with us. Mainly having to do with a boy that she was dating who turned out to be a controlling jerk. But I digress there.

It was a hard decision. Coming with us at the beginning of the year would have been difficult. It turned out that staying was difficult. It would have been bad either way, I think. However, I believe in the end, when she finishes high school here in a few weeks, she'll be glad she stayed and graduated with her class. We'll be down there in AZ again for that.

After graduation, she is coming up here to live with us and go to school. This isn't a situation she's particularly happy with. She doesn't care for the cold, and all her life she's really wanted to go to Arizona State. Unfortunately, because of the economy, finances, and a couple of classes that weren't taken, this isn't possible. She's going to go to the Community College of Denver in the fall, and possibly transfer somewhere in a year or two.

I know this isn't what she had planned, but I also know that she will make the best of it. Somehow, in spite of me, I have a really great daughter. I'm so proud of her and so proud to be her mother. And I can't wait to have her up here living with us. I have missed her terribly this year. She'll get used to the seasons, right?

Happy birthday kiddo...am I still allowed to call you that? :) I love you with all of my heart. I am so proud of the young woman you've become.