17?! How is that possible?!

One of my all-time favorite pictures. This is Sarah Beth and her friend, Rachel Tarleton. I don't even remember what they were tickled about, but I do remember them rolling around on my floor giggling like little girls. She is blessed with good friends.
Sarah Beth with Katie Lehman, her English teacher. Katie is just one of those teachers--she has convinced Sarah Beth that she is capable and smart and that English is fun--something her mother couldn't do.
Sarah Beth with her soccer coach and Uganda chaperone, Sarah Schnaidt. Miss Schnaidt is so encouraging to our girl. She is blessed with adults who love her.
Sarah Beth with Ringo, the teddy bear. (She got Jude for Christmas last year. See a pattern?)
Sarah Beth's amazing poster for Hamlet. She is really creative, and this is in her English teacher's classroom. Sarah Beth loves Hamlet almost as much as I do.

How blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in His ways. When you shall eat of the fruit of your hands, you will be happy and it will be well with you. Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine within your house, your children like olive plants around your table. Behold, for thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord. Psalm 128: 1-4

I have only a few minutes this morning--it is Sarah Beth's 17th birthday, and she requested buttermilk biscuits for breakfast, so I need to get cooking (literally). I know every mother who reads this will understand how I am feeling today. Wasn't it yesterday that she was a tiny baby? Wasn't it yesterday that we took her home from the hospital? Wasn't it only yesterday that I took off the tip of her tiny finger with the fingernail clippers? Okay, so I wasn't mother of the year material early on.

I've written a ton about how great I think Sarah Beth is. I totally recognize that I am biased by my absolute adoration for my own child. But if you knew her...you would think she is great, too.
The thing that I like best about Sarah Beth is that she is absolutely her own person. She has no regard whatsoever for what is popular. Her favorite band is The Beatles, but she also loves a Russian singer (I can't remember his name) and old stuff from the forties. She is funny and compassionate and loving and a thousand other good things that I don't have time to list.

And she's a pretty good MK. (For those of you with our company--don't call her a TCK--she gets a little ticky about it.) She watches out for her many "cousins" at school, though they probably don't know that. She has a keen sense of justice, and when something happens that she doesn't think is right, she definitely comes home with an opinion about it. She has managed to embrace the best things about Russia and remain a thoroughly American kid, which is a harder line to walk than you might imagine. She has friends all over the world, and she's traveled to some pretty amazing places, but she isn't arrogant or superior about those opportunities. She is grateful for them, always aware that she is not having the traditional American teenage experience. She is a thinker, but she is also a person who can cut others some slack when they don't think like she does. We could all do with a little dose of that in everyday life, don't you think?

I'd better run make her biscuits. She's a special young woman. I'm crazy nuts about her--and so is her Daddy. Our little olive plant is blooming and blossoming and growing in a way that makes us so proud...God is good! Wherever you are in the world, I pray that you are praising God for the olive plants around your table, and that you made amazing chocolate frosting for your birthday cupcakes. Blessings to you and yours!

His,
Kellye