Corks was turning 21, and in this part of the world, it is a big deal and most who do turn 21 have a celebration. It’s a coming of age party where we get to stop and take stock of how far they have come and officially give them a set of keys to the front door. We know this is symbolic, of course, because she’s had a key for a very long time already but it’s a sweet sentiment.
It is a moment when we acknowledge that she is now legally an adult and can officially make all her own decisions and sign all her own documents. It’s a strange notion and concept and we are excited to move into this next phase of young adulthood and what it will mean for all of us.
When she saw the garden coming together the past few months, she thought it would be lovely to have a little garden party. We haven’t had a party in our home for one of the girls since junior school so this was a biggie. I’m very private in my home and having 40+ people over is a full body experience for me. I wanted to do it for her and I hadn’t seen her this excited about a party before. She was fully in. We put lights up, made beautiful food and reminisced about her 21 years of life. We spent the week before going through years and years of photos of our life and it was beautifully nostalgic… it was wonderfully distracting from the challenges of the month. A mixture of so much love mingled in with sadness and so much joy for the bitter sweetness of time, her time… into a beautiful young woman.
It reminded us about the crazy beautiful life we have all shared together.
We know this, right? Of course we do. Sometimes life gets in the way and we get bogged down by the heaviness that each year brings. Then one day we wake up and we breathlessly notice that 21 years have passed us by. I am so grateful that we took this moment this week to seek, find and remember in our sacred captured photographs what a beautiful life we have lived and shared together. Far from perfect, beautifully flawed and unbelievably messy and complicated.
Yet I am feeling so utterly grateful…. for her and her contagious smile.
Thank you, beautiful girl, for giving me my title of Momma. Thank you for your incredible relationship with your Dad. Thank you for choosing life every single day, holding it with both hands and moving courageously through every moment. Thank you for making me a better person everyday just to keep up with you. Most of all, thank you for just being you!
What an incredible group of people who came over and those who shared words, thank you. The love was tangible. We have had the privilege of having her friends pass through our home through the years and we are so grateful for the role her friends, family and others have played in her life. - most of who have had such a profound affect of who she is today. We know we couldn’t have raised her without you!
