My Golden Girl

My youngest daughter, Mattea, turns 23 today, the 23rd of January.  Her golden birthday. I don’t know where the time went.

I spent Tuesday with her since I cannot see her today and we had such a nice visit. I sat in awe of the young woman she is today. 

Mattea had a bad birth. I mean it was as bad as it could be. Thankfully my little girl finally took her first breath 20+ minutes after birth. This was a home birth and the midwife stopped trying to save her after about 10 minutes or so. She said there was nothing more she could do and explained that even the Amish don’t have her continue after that amount of time. But Mattea’s father continued for many more minutes and finally she took her first breath. And then another. 

She almost wasn’t here. In fact, she wasn’t for 20+ minutes after birth. All the while her dad was trying to bring life back to her body he was wondering where we were going to lay her to rest.

We don’t always understand why things happen as they do. We can surmise this or that but we don’t really know. We can only learn from them. On her difficult and discouraging days, I remind Mattea that there is a reason God gave her back to us. I need her, for one. 

With all that being said, I guess I felt I needed to be more protective of her. And honestly, I thought she’d live with me forever. 

But she has taught me a lot this past year. Even though in my heart I needed to protect her, the reality is I only hindered her. Last June she moved away and did a lot of hard things all on her own. She didn’t give up and she persevered through all the adulting she needed to do.

Mattea has a great job now and a young man who loves her. She still has me but in a much healthier light. I’m just so proud of her. 

Happy Birthday to my Angel Bear!

♥️

Andi