Happy birthday, Sarah Jane

Sarah Jane. My eldest child. My first daughter. My wonderful daughter. Born 32 years ago Monday. How in the WORLD can she be 32 YEARS old? Aren't I only 32 years old? It's weired. It's surreal. But, it is real.

When I learned I was expecting a baby, I was tha-rilled. I hoped so hard that it would be a girl. I can't figure out why, except that I never had a sister and always wanted one, so I guess I thought a girl baby would be the closest thing. And, it turned out to be so. Of course, this was in the days before ultrasound was a common thing and we got to wait and be surprised. Consequently there was a lot of yellow and green baby gifts given before babies arrived in those days. But, I digress.

One day, when Howard and I were talking about names, (I still remember where this conversation happened. On our front porch steps of our house), he told me if we had a girl, he wanted to name her after his grandmother, who had died a couple of years before we got married. I thought, "oh, that is so sweet"! Just one more reason for me to love a man who was so thoughtful. "What was her name, honey"? "Sarah Jane". "Sarah JANE?!" I immediately flashed back to being 12 and remembering a girl I went to school with who's name was Sarah JANE. I. Did. Not. Like. Her. She was mean and unkind to me. So, asking me to name a child of mine Sarah JANE was not something I was crazy about. So, I (diplomatically, I thought) said, "How about Sarah, but not Sarah Jane"? I thought that would satisfy both sides. Giving Grandma Catlin the honor of naming a child after her, but not making me have to remember the mean girl every time I spoke her name. But, no. It would be Sarah Jane or nothing at all. Later, as I saw the family group sheets and pedigree charts, I realized how common Jane is in the family. I got over it. Sarah Jane came. And I'm so glad. Now, I can't imagine her named anything else. Janer, for a nickname her dad sometimes calls her. She's the best.

Sarah has many of the characteristics of the classic first born. She is very much a leader. She is uber-responsible, thanks in no small part to undoubtedly an unfair amount of responsibility dumped on her by her mom and dad to help with the younger siblings. She is SO organized. She loves to organize. It's a talent. A gift. A compulsion, maybe? But, how can you not love that about someone. I WISH it was a talent/gift I had. She got that from her dad, as did her sister Erin and brother Nathan. It skipped David and I'm not sure yet about Michael. Again, I digress.

She is smart. She loves (again, like her dad) English. She majored in it in high school. She is well read. I don't know how, with 5 kids how/when/where she finds the ability to read like she does. She's pretty. She's crafty. She's a talker (she might have gotten that from me). She's a good cook, I think. Not a baker, Erin got those genes, but she makes good meals. She is funny. But, then, most of our family is funny. If you don't believe that, just ask us...we crack ourselves up sometimes. I'm sure many others don't quite appreciate how funny we think we are!

She's a teacher. Naturally. College trained, yes, but a natural teacher. She's a good mom. A mom who stresses that she's NOT, and that she's screwing up her kids because she has imperfect days. She tries really hard and takes her motherhood very seriously. She loved teaching. She set it on the back burner while she took on a more important job...raising children. And, I think she's doing a pretty good job at it. Tyler gets some credit for that, too, by the way.

She's kind. She's thoughtful(again, a Howard thing). She's generous. She has a pretty well defined sense of right and wrong. But, she isn't judgemental. She has a strong testimony of Christ.

I guess the gush fest should end now. I can't help it. I'm unbelievebly well pleased in the person she has become and continues to become. I'm one of those people in this world who happens to believe that family members are put together for reasons and that one day we'll know what those reasons are. Maybe not in this life, but one day. I still haven't quite figured out why I am the mom and my kids are the kids in this mix. Some days I feel like Sarah should have been the mom. She seems so far ahead of me in so many ways. I have learned so much from her. It's like she should have been the mom to ME.




Happy birthday, Sarah. I love you.