Happy Birthday #12 Chloe!

Today my beautiful daughter, Chloe, turned 12. I can remember being 12. In fact, that is really where the bulk of my memory begins and is pretty solid. That’s where I begin to remember emotions and feelings, as well as images. I hope that this year will be the beginning of really great memories for her too.

Giving birth to a baby is wonderful, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. However, when you adopt a baby you feel as if you have robbed a bank, pulled of the heist of the century. You come to a building and someone says, "Here she is, you may have her." They give you a human to keep. Instead of an obstetrician, you share this moment with a judge…and you are fully clothed.

We chose the name Chloe should we ever have a little girl. When we saw her on the internet, and her name was already Chloe, we knew she was our girl. Then when her foster mom told us that her middle name was Ann (my husband’s mom’s name) we knew God was at work. All the way home from Birmingham on March 18^th, 1999, I felt sure that blue lights and sirens would show up in the rear-view mirror. I was certain that the officer would say, “Where’d you get that baby? I think I need to take her in.” I still can’t believe she is ours. Everyday of her life I feel honored that I get to share life with this remarkable young woman. I admire and respect her so much.

I was commenting to George the other day that I don’t remember teaching her to read. We struggled to remember which curriculum we had used. I frantically searched my memory for some image of being at the table or on the couch practicing phonics rules…nothin’. There was no memory because Chloe taught herself to read while I was busy chasing down and wiping things off of her baby sister, Hannah-Jo. She did this through an obsession with D’aulaire’s Book of Greek Myths, so today I gave her a brand new copy of it (the other one is in pieces from over-use.)

Chloe asked for a purple full length sun dress, and I found one! Here she is in the lovely little number. Last year and this year we had bookshelves commissioned for Chloe’s birthday gift. We have a man in Gainesville that creates wonderful things from reclaimed barn wood. Chloe’s shelves are made from a barn c. 1930 from Banks County. They have a lovely rosey hue in the grain of the wood. The second one in the picture is for George’s birthday which is next week. Finally, a place to put all of their books!

This evening she is playing Sims with the new expansion pack she received from Ethan. Sunday she plans to shop with Joseph and Joni. On the shopping list is a wig and high heels (she and Hannah-Jo play dress up almost everyday. I found them pretending to be spawning mermaids the other day.)

Chloe is my right-hand farm girl. Should I expire tomorrow - she can do it all. She gets up at the crack of dawn because she is a chronic insomniac…too many books in bed. As soon as I scuffle out of my room in the morning she is ready to join me on the porch for milking and feeding. She has a natural gift with animals and is very intuitive. Now that I have said all of that she will want to be paid.

Happy Birthday Princess. I think we will keep you.