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Two Decades

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I am old. I know you didn’t realize that (despite my reminding you ever so often), but I am. On this lovely Friday my daughter is no longer a teenager. She is 20 years old. Though hard to fathom, it was two decades ago in Tulsa, OK that I woke early to take my darling, very pregnant wife to the hospital, where we spent the best part of the day waiting on our little bundle of joy who was apparently in no big hurry to see the light of day. We were parents who wanted to be surprised, so we did not inquire about the sex of our child and instead prepared names for either. I had wanted a girl from the start and was convinced the whole time that a girl it would be. I could never settle on any boy names that I really liked and in the end was not overly concerned because I just knew that I knew that a girl was on the way. Even at the last the doctor said, “It’s going to be a boy”. Although it doesn’t happen nearly often enough, I love being right. 🙂

This isn’t the first time Tori has made me feel my age, in fact just a few weeks ago, right before Mary and I left on our trip to celebrate our 23rd wedding anniversary, Tori got engaged! It was a jolt back to our past, reminiscing on our trip about our courtship and how young we were. Despite my ‘old age’ cracks, we both honestly feel far too young to have a daughter old enough to be engaged to be married. And I consider that a blessing. Grant is a really nice guy and we are really happy for both of them. They don’t plan to marry until 2013 and no doubt you’ll read more about this event from me in future. If we didn’t already think our little girl had grown up (and we did), these two recent events have sealed it for us. She’s a young lady now, and a lovely one at that.

“Happy Birthday, Tori!!! Your mother and I love you dearly and are proud of the young woman you have become. We are equally proud and excited for the coming years as we watch the young woman you will continue to become. The past 20 years have been full of adventures, mostly good and a few…memorable…but through all of it you’ve been a bright light in our lives and have been everything we hoped for during our days when we sat dreaming about who this little person was forming inside the womb. We look forward to the adventures that the next 20 years will bring all of us, together.”

A daughter is the happy memories of the past, the joyful moments of the present, and the hope and promise of the future. ~Author Unknown

55 thoughts on “Two Decades”

  1. This is so sweet Carl!! Happy birthday to your beautiful daughter!! And OMG I can’t believe she’s engaged either!!!!! Reading this I realize that when I met you she was 15!!! So sweet though.

  2. What a wonderful post, Carl! Happy Birthday to Tori! I might add that you are only as old as you feel. :p And, wow, I had no idea she was engaged. Congrats to her! (Chris is better with numbers than I am. I have no idea how long we have known each other, so I have no idea how old she was at the time. It has been a while though!)

    1. That is true, and thankfully most days I feel pretty young. Once in awhile I feel 80, but not often! 🙂 I’m in my 8th year of blogging and I think it might actually be even longer that we’ve all known each other. I’d have to check.

  3. Happy birthday to Tori, and congratulations. Your daughter’s wedding is such a special event. I do hope you enjoy it was much as I enjoyed my daughter’s.

  4. Wow. Wow wow wow wow wow.

    Well, first of all–HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TORI!!! And CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

    I just can’t believe your baby is 20!!! And engaged!!! But oh my, is she a beautiful young lady! And even without you saying it, you can just see that her beautiful is far more than skin deep. What a beautiful beautiful family your are!!! Wow, and a family that’s growing…how cool is that. 🙂

    1. Ha! I was hoping you would see this Debi. Can you fathom that it won’t be too terribly long (a blink of an eye) before Annie will be this age?

      Thank you so much for your kind words. We are indeed a family that is growing and I’m happy to see it.

  5. Great post Carl. My daughter turns 19 soon. You expressed my own thoughts on grown up daughters. May the next year run smoothly. I’m thinking being creative with cameras is part of your family heritage. Birthday wishes to your daughter and congratulations all around.

    1. Well congratulations to you and happy early birthday to her, Ian. I hope both your and our next year runs smoothly. Yes, Tori loves taking pics. Will be interesting to see how she feels about me swiping these from her camera, LOL!

  6. Carl you are one of the nicest guys I know. What a wonderful tribute to your daughter. I wish her a happy birthday and congrats on her engagement. Have you watched Father of the Bride recently 🙂

    1. We have actually, or the second one, can’t remember which. Love both of those films very much.

  8. Happy Birthday Tori! And Congratulations on your engagement!!!

    …as if all that hasn’t sunk in for you and Mary.. and whenever they decide it will all begin again…only this time as Grandpa and Grandma! (did I just hear your head bang on the keyboard? heh)

    1. Haha! I hope to be quite a few years older before I’m saddled with the “gramps” monicker.

      1. LOL. Dream on buddy. Right now I have 2014 as the year you will hear the words grandpa spoken in your direction. I’d tell you the month as well but I want you have a little bit of a surprise. 🙂

  9. She gets more beautiful every year! I have until August until my oldest turns 20, so technically I’m not old yet…lol Happy birthday and a big congratulations to all <3

    1. Thanks Kelly, She takes after her mother in that respect. Enjoy your remaining months of youth, 🙂

  10. Oh man, Carl. Just gave me a life-flashing-before-my-eyes kind of moment here, with Avonlea getting ready to turn one (8 days now). I’m so looking forward to all of the adventures and fun times we’ll have, but I’m so dreading it at the same time.

    My normal handle on my emotions threatens to overwhelm me here, so, um, HAPPY BIRTHDAY and congratulations… 😉

    1. It is so interesting to think about how you are at the starting gate of this journey Logan. Hope there will continue to be some kind of social media outlet over the next two decades as I’d love to wish your daughter a Happy 20th then and think back to today.

  11. She’s beautiful. What a very special time for all of you. I know we will read posts about the upcoming nuptuals. That should be interesting. 🙂

    1. Hello favorite father-in-law! I don’t know that I’m all that grand, but I’ll take it. 🙂

  15. Nice post! Congrats to you and Mary! You did it! You successfully raised a person! And a Grand one, at that! Happy Birthday, Tori!

    1. Yes, thanks in large part to God and to Mary, lol! And of course Tori has had a big part in that herself.

  16. All I can say is Wow!

    I can’t believe it has been 15 years since we were watching Tori through the summers.

    She is such a blessing to us all!

    Happy birthday, Tori, you rock!

    1. Wild, isn’t it? It really has been a long time when you think of it that way, and all that has happened in those years.

  17. Aw Carl, Toris is lucky to have a dad like you. Happy birthday to her and congratulations to you both.

  19. What a wonderful post, Carl, and you know I think the world of Tori.

    Happy Birthday.

  20. Tori, I’d wish you a happy birthday too and tell you how much the Smith family loves you but this post is already waaaaay to sappy so I not going to do it! I will resist… Must resist… Argh!!! I can’t do it…. Happy birthday! 😉

  21. aw… happy birthday and congratulations on the engagement. what a big year. I hope it is a glorious one. …for mom, dad, and daughter.

  22. Happy Birthday, Tori!

    Let’s see, Carl, age 20 means she has to start contributing to the book budget, right? You are rightly proud to have such an accomplished daughter.

    1. Oh Richard, I like that! I like that very much! And with all the books coming out this month that I want, the timing couldn’t be better.

  23. Such a happy post, wonderful news, and beautiful girl. Congratulations on everything!! (and you’re not old)

    1. I know, Daphne, which is why it is fun to joke about it. Time does whoooooooosh by though.

  25. Happy Birthday to our beautiful Granddaughter,Tori. We love you so much and have watched you grow into a wonderful young lady. Of course her parents are exceptional also 🙂

  26. Congratulations to you and your daughter. Children are one of the great joys of our lives. I have 2 sons (ages 21 and 19) so I know how you feel.

    Take the time to enjoy each stage of life for what it is. Each brings it’s own happiness.

    One of my best friends is preparing for his oldest child’s wedding at the end of this month. Based on what I have seen, you have a lot of work ahead of you but it will all be worth it.

  27. What a lovely post, Carl! Happy birthday to your daughter, and congratulations to her getting engaged. You sound so proud, and thank you for sharing her with us (and her letting you). You are a proud father!

  28. Happy Birthday, Tori!! We think she is an awesome young lady also! Thank you Carl and Mary for raising such a wonderful girl. We feel so blessed to call her part of our family!! Looking forward to what God has in store for her and Grant!

  29. Happy Birthday Tori and congrats on your engagement!

    Carl, your annual tributes to your daughter come around much too fast. It is a reminder to me to cherish the time I have with my own little one who is already (unbelievably to me) approaching 6!

    Hope you all had a great day celebrating Tori’s 20th!

  30. After having just celebrated my daughter’s first birthday this beautiful post tugged at my heartstrings. Happy birthday to your daughter, Carl. What a lucky girl she is to have such a loving father.

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