Houston Human Interest columnist Alisa Murray writes her award winning monthly featured column. #alisamurray,#alisamurraywrites
Well folks…she’s driving! Victoria Ann that is; and with this next level of growing up, I have found myself both overjoyed at the young woman we are so blessed to get to parent and scared silly all at the same time.
First of all, I do not know how our time has flown so fast. It was after all just yesterday that we brought her home and started navigating through parenting. As I run a memory rolodex through months that then turn into years, I remember when she was 7 months old and had her first anaphylactic reaction. How we rushed her to the hospital barely breathing both Brian and I wondering how we would get her through childhood without that happening again. We did not have another one until high school this year! I remember when I waddled into Sienna pool pregnant with James Edward and she marched straight into the deep in clothes and all unable to swim. I remember when she looked me straight in the face and while Brian was video taping she ripped a coloring book all the while checking out of the corner of her eye to see if I would notice. She has always been head strong, right in what she had her head set on and unwavering. Sound familiar? He He!
I also remember how she looked at me when I took her to diaper Aerobics and taught her how to float, her talking through her “bott boot” (pacifier) and of course taking her beloved “Tee” (teddy bear) everywhere. Then there were the ruby slippers that had to be worn everyday even to school despite the rules! None of us at the Murray’s have ever been a big fan of rules..especially silly ones like having to wear tennis shoes instead of ruby slippers. I in fact argued this case for her and won permission to wear Little Mermaid costumes and ruby slippers to school….I mean really, when else in your life can you? LOL
Through the grades in school and piano, ballet and horseback riding lessons I have attended and watched her get better and then achieve the goals she set for herself. She is smart. Oh how I love her so much! The sleepovers, the mean girls and the first boyfriends…I think I have been a mother that my own mother and grandmothers would be proud of. I have picked my battles and chosen wisely, I think to argue over the big stuff and let the little things go by. My advice has come from Christian values and has been sound and unwavering. I trust her and she knows what I expect her to be and do.
I am sad though despite this milestone of 16. I remember my Daddy threw me a party at the country club and I found him later crying with a picture of me and him taken that day. He did the same thing when I left for boarding school at 17. I think it is in the knowing of what’s coming…her leaving us, that is the hardest to swallow as a parent. You want them to grow up and they do, but when they do you want to pull them closer even for just one more year, one more hug…you know.
Right now I just want her to come home safe. She’s DRIVING! Truthfully, she’s been driving me around for a year; but her, in that car alone, is an awful thing to bear. Nana used to sit up in her rocking chair and wait….she’d wait right there until I came home. I have a feeling there’s a rocking chair in my very near future!
Take care of YOU!
