22 trips around the sun

All grown up
Dryden, ON
September 2019
This photo originally shared on Instagram

I often look at our kids and marvel at how lucky we are that they turned out as smart, driven, funny, kind, and empathetic as they have. They're infinitely fun to hang around with, and every conversation with them reminds me why this life thing is the greatest trip imaginable.

It’s Dahlia’s 22nd birthday today, and as I do every time she completes an orbit of the sun, I think back to that singular moment when I first held her. She was tinier than I expected, and she squirmed in my arms as my eyes took in her face for the first time.

She’ll be the first to tell you how physically small she still is, but I’ll be the first to disagree with her. She may not be the tallest person in the room, but she’s a giant all the same.

Whatever life chooses to throw at her - and she’s been on the receiving end of plenty, both over the past year and through various chapters of her young life - not once has she decided to fold her tent and go home. Quit isn’t part of her vocabulary. Instead, she doubles down, bears down, grits her way through to the other side.

She never stops working - I stopped counting how many part-time jobs she juggles as she pursues her university degree full-time - and she doggedly picks her coursework apart until she’s figured it out. No wonder she made honor roll. We weren’t surprised, but we were, and are, incredibly proud all the same.

She’s a gifted photographer and artist who never seems to tire of telling new stories through whatever tool - lens, pencil, pen, brush - she’s got in her hand. She’s inherited the best of her mom and has managed to become her own unforgettable self in the process. I can’t help but think the universe smiled on us when it first granted us this incredible gift, and it’s been smiling on us ever since as she’s grown into an accomplished young woman blessed with limitless potential.

Happiest of birthdays, Peanut Girl. Whatever your size, you cast a huge shadow, and we’re ridiculously lucky to live within it.

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