Thirty-Two years ago today I was so pregnant with my eldest daughter Tonya aka Voodie that I waddled around like a very bloated duck. I was so big I got stuck behind the steering wheel of my car. I was 19 and had been married 5 days short of a year. 

Like any young new mother I had happy dream of the future and was thrilled when they laid my baby girl in my arms for the first time. I remember counting her fingers and toes and holding her so close. I remember being up and wanting to take my baby and go home 4 hours later. The nurses had a hard time convincing me I had to stay in for at least 3 days. 

Time seems to of passed by more quickly then I realized as I look at my daughter today and see a beautiful intelligent young woman with children of her own. 

If I try real hard and pull my memories forward I can still smell the sweet baby smell of the wee girl I held in my arms in the hospital. I can close my eyes and see her head full of curly hair and her amazing blue eyes and her first smile. 

I can still remember her first words and her first steps. I remember how happy she was when I brought her baby sister Rhonda home from the hospital 3 years later. Tonya thought her sister was her personal dolly. 

I remember how hard I cried her first day of school. The realization that she was starting to grow up hit me hard but I knew I had to accept it. 

Tonya was totally day and night trained before she was a year old and she was reading by the time she was 4 years old. She was very quick to learn and had a memory like an elephant from day one. She only needed to be shown something once to pick it up. Her curiosity was never satisfied and she had to poke around until she found all the answers she was looking for. Whether it be why a kitten is born blind to how a bee pollenated flowers. 

Her love of nature was apparent from the first time she realized there were critters and butterflies. As a little girl she brought home every stray creature she came across. She also used to bring home every stray person she found. 

I remember coming home from the corner store one day and she was feeding an old man a sandwich and pickles in my kitchen. I asked her who he was and she said just someone she found in a yard down the street. Turned out she had met the old gentleman out in the yard at the old folks home and she had brought him home because he said he was hungry. 

Tonya never did seem to grasp the concept and understand that you do not take kitties out of someones front yard or old folks from the seniors home. She just felt that every creature big and small deserved to be taken in and cared for. 

We owned a farm at one time and my pigs and chickens would follow Tonya all over the yard and unfortunately some would follow her into my back porch as well. She could never figure out why I would make her put them outside again. I woke one morning to a nanny goat in bed beside me because Tonya said the goat was cold. 

Every barnyard critter had a name and lo and behold when the day came to take the pigs to slaughter. Things like that had to be done while Tonya was at school or she would be hollering blue murder trying to save them from becoming bacon.

At milking time "Blossom" my milk cow was so content when Tonya was singing to her and "Henny Penny" her pet chicken would sit on the lowest branch of the tree at the end of the driveway waiting on the school bus to arrive so she could follow her mistress into my back porch. The pheasants I raised in incubators would mysteriously be hopping all around the room free and I would know exactly who let them out.

As Tonya grew and matured she found new adventures to follow and new strays to take in. 

Then one day she was married and had a child of her own. Ah yes my eldest has grown into a wonderful human being and I am so proud of her. We are good friends now and chatter on about many different things from daily living to politics and religion and music.

There are a million memories and I could tell you pages full but I will stop for now.

We do not always agree but we do agree to disagree. Sometimes I am her confidant and sometimes I am the friend that laughs uncontrollably at things she tells me. But the one thing I am always is her Mother and proud to be.

 Happy Birthday My Beautiful Daughter -- I love you now and forever 

Remember folks treasure your children and all that they do because one day you will wake up and realize that time has passed to quickly and they have grown.