Today Casey is 25. I remember well the day she was born. Casey was born social with a great imagination and lots of strong will. As a toddler she pranced around in her tutu and when she started kindgergarten she was convinced she was allergic to pants and so she wore dresses all the time. She was a joy to raise and even though she challenged me with her opinion, we did a great job of getting along and working together.

Apples don’t fall far from trees and I see myself in her. Independent, loving, and driven she has set out into the world to make a place for herself. A place of her own ideals on her own terms. You can bet that she is never motivated by peer pressure, all of her successes and failures have been of her own choices. I learned early with a strong-willed child you have to find a way to channel it in boundaries but you never want to take it away. Strong will will serve its purpose one day and it has. Instead of a five year college plan she finished in 3 1/2 while working, proving that whatever she sets her mind to do she accomplishes it.

When I close my eyes and see my daughter I remember her as a four year-old, dancing and playing and singing. Hers was a world of make believe.

I know you I walked with you once upon a dream
I know you the gleam in your eyes is so familiar a gleam
And I know it’s true that visions are seldom all they seem
But if I know you I know what you’ll do
You’ll love me at once the way you did once upon a dream

I worry about her, I pray for her and the word love doesn’t even begin to describe how I feel about her. I miss her terribly most days. We won’t see each other today, as we are miles apart, but my love follows her always and distance is never an obstacle. I love you sweet child ‘o mine!