Where does the time go?

Wow. Remembering to write in my blog seems to be more of a challenge than I thought. Time keeps passing by in the blink of an eye.

Which is a perfect lead in to my post today. My daughter. I now have an adult daughter! She turned 18 last week, and so many things have happened over the last few years in her life that it is amazing ONLY two years have passed.

She has not had a good time of it. She has struggled with adolescence. She has left home at a young age, moved back, and moved out again. She has seesawed on the issue of gender identity. She has fought the blackness and despair of drugs and alcohol. She has experienced the horrors of things other humans can do to other humans.

I am so proud of her. She has made some bad choices...everyone does. She has experienced a few years that would destroy pretty much anyone. But she is not destroyed.

My daughter made it to adulthood. She has clawed her way back onto the path of life. She has returned to the support and fellowship of a nice church group. She has taken herself for the help she needed, and no longer relies on the drugs and alcohol. She is finishing her school year on track, catching up in a slightly different way than usual, so that she should be able to graduate with her peers in the spring. She has a nice fellow who loves her and is helping her not to slip back into old habits. She has been working part-time and her manager says she is her best employee.

And in approximately 36 days, give or take a few weeks, she will have my first grandchild, who will be loved and cared for in a stable home, and of course will have many family members who will also love and help care for him.

She has come a long way. So much has happened in a mere 2 years. And that is just HER story.