A Letter to My Daughter...

My friend Casey at All I'm Sayin', recently wrote a letter to her daughter on her 5th birthday and I thought it was a wonderful idea. As it turns out, it's MY daughter's birthday so I thought it would be fun to do the same.

Dear Jacki,

Today you are 28. I can't believe how fast the time has gone. I loved the little girl you were, but I'm so very grateful for the wonderful woman you have become.

You were such a delightful child and have given me so many wonderful memories. You were my helper when I needed help, you were my joy when I needed happiness, you were "my sunshine when my skies were gray."

One of my proudest memories is the day you brought home, in your Senior year of high school, a certificate. Your graduating class had voted for "Most Popular", "Most Likely to Succeed", "Prettiest", and many others. You, of all the kids, brought home a certificate that proclaimed you had been voted "Most Generous". Of all the awards given, I was so proud that you were chosen for that. I never expected my kids to get straight A's, what I did expect, was for you to be kind to others and give from your heart whenever you could. I tried to instill in all of my kids how much it hurt others to be bullied and how that would never be tolerated. You and Jake were proof that my words were not in vane.

You never realize how much you can love someone until you have children. Then, you have grandchildren and realize that they too, provide you with such a special kind of love. You are such a wonderful mother and have given me 3 more reasons to remember every day that Life Is Good.

I'm so proud that we have grown from a wonderful mother/child relationship to knowing that you are my best friend. You will never know how much I love it when you want to come and stay with your mom when your husband is gone. It makes my heart so happy to know that you enjoy my company. I have always felt such a special bond with my own mother, and hoped that someday you and I would have that same bond. I'm grateful it turned out that way.

I hope you will always remember that sometimes it hard for a mother especially, to fully let go and not always want to fix things. I know that's one of my biggest faults, but when you love your kids as much as I do, it's hard sometimes to step back and observe. Just know that I too, make mistakes, but they are always done out of love. We laugh often about the fact that "You are your mother's daughter" and I apologize for that. Not that we laugh about it, but that you turned out that way!




Thank you for being my "sunshine" and such a wonderful part of my life. I love you sweet daughter.

mom