Karis

I stood on the card aisle yesterday for awhile reading cards that I would like to give to my now 17 year old daughter. Yes, today is her birthday!! I'm not really a card giver, but I read about 10 cards that I wanted to hand to her to just express how much she means to me. I was tear-ing up in Publix as I thought about how blessed I am to have been graced by her presence for 17 years now. Time goes by so very quickly and I know that before I know it, she will be all grown up. Other than a few of my bad habits she's picked up along the way (heehee) she is just like her daddy. Maybe that's why I love her so much. The only thing better than Richard is the female version of Richard. Just teasin'...there is nothng or no one better to me than that man. Oh, but it is amazing as she has gotten older and her intellect has developed to listen to her and see how she processes information just like Richard. How they both study and know people so well. They both enjoy people tremendously and like finding out little details. Maybe that's one reason they are both so loved by others. They make people feel good about themselves. Everyone wants to be known by someone.Honestly....they are odd. Maybe I should say unique but really unique doesn't express it well enough, so I'm sticking with odd til I think of a better word: ) I was in Target with Karis about 2 months ago and I returned an item when we first arrived. When we walked away she made a comment about a facial feature of the girl who waited on us. It wasn't negative it was just an observation. I told karis I probably couldn't even identify her again. I just don't take in details. Karis was bumfuzzled so she began to observe me. After we checked out she said I appear to be connecting with people, but that really I wasn't and was just saying words that sound like I'm connecting. It was't a criticism. It was just a fact. I hit target with a task and returned what I needed to return and collected everything into my cart I needed to collect and checked out and was on my way in record time. I guess I assumed that's what everyone does. After her glimpse into my world(amazing to her) and my gimpse into her world(amazing to me) we talked about how it takes different personality types to make life work. How God in his amazing creativeness made us all so differently and for special purposes. It really is cool. Except Karis knows she can't just float around relating and neglect responsibilities and I know I have to stop and really look at and get to know people sometime.
Anyway, I'm not sure I've stayed on topic well unless the topic is "I love my Karis and I am so glad to get to know her more and more everyday and I'm so glad to see God shaping her heart and developing her character...I'm blessed to be her momma"

Can't wait to see what today brings. We're going to spend the whole day blessing her to say thank you for what a blessing she is to us and just doing whatever she wants to do. I might post pics later: )