Another Birth

I declare, my heart and my life feels like it has given birth again for the 3rd time. My daughter has turned 18 and graduated High School all within a month's time.
I remember the travail of carrying her and then giving birth by cesearin section after 10 hours of labor, and the joy and pain and the overwhelming feeling of being responsible for this life once they placed her in my arms!!!!

The days that followed was tremendous change in my life. I realized for the first time exactly how selfish of a person I was. It seemed everytime, I planned to just sit down eat a meal, she would start crying and needed to be held or fed. She changed everything about me, the way I thought, walked, ate, slept, worked, even breathed! It was a change that took a little bit to get used to. I remember the tenderness of my heart and how wide open it was to her and basically anything pertaining to her! She was my first labor of love. I found out that my love language was acts of service and this was really a gift that God wanted to develop in my life. It didn't take long before she had me and her dad completely wrapped and the change became a good adjustment and a way of life!

She has been the pride and joy of our life. A beautiful person she has become. We are so stinking proud of her accomplishments. She graduated 17th in her class. She has always been a hard worker in her studies, I could have never accomplished this task myself and there has never been once that I had to check up on her grades or what her studies were or in what direction they were going. I know she is going to become whatever the Lord has for her in this life. The day she turned 18, was so heart breaking, tears just kept flowing and it seemed only like yesterday that that little girl was lain in my arms for the first time! My mind stayed in a fog for the entire month until graduation. We had several events leading up to graduation. Honor graduate cermony, (tears) Scholarship awards ceremony, (more tears) Church recognition on Sunday June 1st. (many more tears) Time just kept on flying,,,,straight to June 8th.....The Day ! Taylor Shaw Barber, graduated, well by this time the dam just B.R.O.K.E.

Thank goodness, the next morning, we left on a time of our life vacation. We went to Jamaica. The country was so beautiful, and the people were so humble and helpful. We went with some dear friends who children had graduated also. It was a blast! Stayed out late, rose up early, time just seemed to come to a crawl there. Great food and fun and all the ice cream my 12 yr old could eat !!!! We might not have gotten our money's worth in the buffet for him, but oh man, did he take advantage of the ice cream machine!!!! All 14 of us survived the Dunn Rivers Falls, we made it to the top only after the guide took me under her wing :o) The rest of my family rode the sailboat and Jonathan snorkled. It was definitely a beautiful place, good to go, but better to come home! I am a simple person and it doesn't take much to impress me, and I am satisfied just sticking to the normal calm sameness of life.

My heart is still very tender and wide open, and God's grace is going to fill the cracks up after having one on the edge of the nest, ready to fly out at any moment! I pray that there will be some feathers for me to gather and keep with me the rest of my days. Surreal, somber moments creep up on me at anytime. I feel like I'm getting heart surgery all over with these Hallmark moments of speaking the truth and telling those that I love exactly how I feel and God's grace is giving me such words to bless with. I'm very thankful for the Life God has blessed us with, we are so unworthy and undeserving, the Lord definitely gives and keeps on giving!

I love him soo....
Psalm 18:1