Our baby turned seventeen today.
For all the ways I have to influence the world, the ones with the greatest potential are Hope and Andrew. They know me best. They have had the greatest opportunity to find out how I respond to stress, to frustration, to delight, to life. They are the ones who know me.
And I know them.
I know how to aggravate them. I know how to make them smile. I know how to make them groan with despair at me feeble attempts at humor. I still don’t know how to change their minds, how to make them do certain things or change certain behaviors, but we’re still together and smiling.
I’m thinking that if I only had three weeks left, I’d just keep spending time with my family. I’d probably work to make sure that they understand some more of the why’s about what I’ve done, but at this point, It wouldn’t make much difference to change the what’s. By now they know how I am. (Unless, of course, there is something that really needs to change. And I should do that no matter what.)
For Andrew and Hope, however, I’m already 21 and 17 years into creating a legacy.
I’m liking what we’re seeing.
Happy Birthday, Hope. And thank you, Hope’s mom.
