42 years ago

42 years ago I was ready...more than ready.  At 3.43 a.m. my baby girl was born.  Jennifer Joy.  She came  to join my older baby girl Melanie.  I, all of a sudden, (okay, 9 months of sudden) was the mother of two beautiful girls.  How lucky can one person be?

Jennifer, Melanie and I have been through a lot these 42 years.  But this is about Jennifer.  In February will be Melanie's turn down memory lane. 

Jennifer was a puny little thing.  She never wanted to sleep at night, making for some l-o-n-g, sleepless nights for me.  When she was just 5 months old she got very sick with a virus and spent a week in the hospital...with me right beside her the entire time.  We finally discovered she had an allergy to milk...all kinds.  Oh I hate the soy milk formula we had to feed her, but she flourished.  As a toddler she was into everything....loved to see how much mischief she could get into.  At the same time she was an even tempered, happy-go-lucky baby.

Jennifer, 2 years old

 5th Birthday, Minot AFB, ND

Lancaster CA10th Birthday

 Fast forward to teen age years. She really never did rebel like most teenagers...and if she did, she didn't do it very well. She was so busy with church and school activities while we were in Lancaster she really didn't get into much trouble. And if she did get into trouble you can bet that Billie, Christy, Tammy, Vickie, Laura or another of her good friends would be right there beside her. However, Jenn (as she is now called) always has had a huge circle of friends. Jenn was Rifle Captain inQuartz Hill High School Marching Band. I can still see and hear her practing, and her pain when she missed. She loved to twirl that Rifle and was very good at it. And her first car....a 1974 Ford Station Wagon...huge monster. A friend of ours told her Dad if he could get it started Jennifer could HAVE it. What a beast! Her first love came at about the same time; as did the first broken heart. I think I cried as much as she did!

17th birthday, Stoneridge, WA

    

 Rifle Captain, Quartz Hill HS, Lancaster CA

Dancing with Dad, 1985, Lancaster CA

19th Birthday, Irby WA

Then life threw us a curve and Jennifer wound up in a boarding school in Switzerland while here Dad and I were in Saudi Arabia.  It just about broke my heart to let her go at age 17 to a boarding school and oh, how I missed her.  She spent school breaks with us in Saudi or what ever country we were visiting.  However, boarding school gave her a great advantage I think in life...she learned to be independent, make her own choices and pay the consequences for the bad choices and reap the benefits of the good choices.  And gave her a great head start on college years.  She was so much more mature than most college freshmen, and yes, she probably taught them a few tricks from boarding school days.  She definitely was no saint!!!  :-)

New Ski gear, getting ready to leave for Boarding School, The American School in Switzerland, (TASIS) Dec, 1985

TASIS, we surprised Jenn at her graduation by bringing her cousins Sherrie and Denise along with us.  Check out the hair!!!

Over the years our relationship has grown from mother and daughter into mother, daughter and best friends.  She has turned out to be a wonderful person, caring, giving, loving and her circle of friends knows no boundaries.  She is still friends with kids from her grade school days!! 

As a daughter, Jenn has always been thoughtful...well most of the time.  There were times...but we won't go into that.  I am very fortunate to have her in my life, and so, here is to you Jennifer Joy....Happy 42nd Birthday.  Love you my baby girl.