16

 On December 1, Sarah turned 16.

 My how times flies. I look at this beauty before me and cannot believe the young woman that she has become. It seems like just a blink of an eye ago she was this chubby cheeked smiley little face. Now, she is a beautiful young woman. (Who is now taller than me and has been for a while.)

We were a little confined (by COVID, of course) as to what we could do this year, but we tried to make it as good of a birthday for her as possible. After much family discussion we made the decision to allow my mom to come out and celebrate this birthday with us. We really went back and forth over this decision, but in the end decided that my mom (with a weakened immune system herself from MS) would be the most cautious about COVID exposure and would be the safest member of our family to have over. 

We celebrated Sarah by playing a trivia game that Bob made up, which was really, really fun. We then had our 4th annual Blind Olympics in which all of the kids performed various activities blind-folded. We gave out a "fabulous" prize at the end of the tournament based on who had accumulated the most points throughout the tourney. Activities this year included: a taste test, bowling, wheelbarrow races, bobbing for ping pong balls, a race to gather braille clues around the house and then decipher what the clues meant, & a bean bag toss.

Sarah opened gifts and ate  food of her choosing -as is the custom in our house. (McDonalds for breakfast, Chick-fil-A for lunch, and eggplant parmesan for dinner.) We topped off the day with ice cream cake. 

I will say that this birthday was hard for me to swallow, not only because it brought into focus how grown up my beautiful daughter is, but because it was the first birthday (and only) that did not have the significance it could have because of the implications of her disease. Even Sarah commented that in a different life she would have been getting her license at this time, and a part of me cannot help but mourn for the loss of this right of passage. 

Overall, despite the obstacles in our world right now, we managed to have a good day. I hope Sarah felt celebrated and loved for surely she is a treasured member of our family, not only on her birthday, but every day.