Super Sweet Sixteen

Yesterday my sweet sweet girl turned 16 years old. Impossible! My adorable bald-headed baby girl 16 years old? No way. Someone stop time! Arghhh!!!!

I have to tell you a story about Katie. This is a peek into the heart and soul of this child of mine. Last week she was at christian camp, the one she goes to every year and loves. On Thursday morning, after a week of staying up late and getting up early, she decided to get up extra early (4 hours of sleep kind of early) and attend the morning 'boot camp'. This is a session on the beach where they flex their bodies, share some worship and stop to take a deep look into themselves. The lesson that day was about worries. They were talking about how worrying about things can drain you and how wonderful it is to just be able to turn those worries over to God. They each found a stone, thought of something that had really been worrying them, then placed the worry into the stone and flung it out into the ocean, releasing it to God. Katie thought about Ahren. About how long we have fought to bring him into our family and how at every turn things went wrong. She placed that worry into her stone and flung it as far as she could. She turned it over to God to handle. The next day as my tired and happy girl came off of that bus I was able to run to her, grab her in a huge hug and tell her Ahren was ours. When she shared the story of the stone with me, we both had tears in our eyes. She is truly beautiful inside and out.

Speaking of beauty, she has her first photo shoot in LA this weekend. Her dad is flying out with her this time. These will be the foundation of her portfolio and what will be used to shop her around. (Geez that sounds bad! Visions of Pretty Woman flashed thru my head.....) She is cool as a cucumber. Her Dad is a tad nervous. This will be his first photo shoot. I predict it will be a long and boring day for him. At least he doesn't have to concern himself with make-up, hair or wardrobe. The stylists take care of all of that. (How cool is that?) Her Dad's job is to be visible all the time and be sure nothing unacceptable happens, like photos that are inappropriate for OUR 16 year old. (What is OK for some 16 year olds is up for debate...)