8 is GREAT!!!

Cami, my beautiful Cami, made me a mom 8 years ago and they have been the best 8 years of my life. Serious they have with no schmooze intended.

She was the answer to so many prayers and so much heart ache. With her life was finally what I wanted it to be like....happily married with children...She is a good kid. She has a conscience a mile wide which is so nice for us-she can't do wrong because she always confesses too fast if she tries. :) She makes us feel like good parents even though we have no real claim to her goodness. She is a fierce protector of her siblings and a great baby sitter (while I shower). She is a reader and thinker and has a great imagination. She creates so many scenarios playing house or army or box car children that I can hardly keep up with her ideas. She definitely directs the play at our house. She is a totally picky eater and Brent tells me she just has a very refined palate. She is getting a funny sense of humor and understands double meanings. She is growing up so fast that I just want to hit pause but at the same time I really love the girl she is becoming and I want to see more and more of who she is. I love her more than I can say and I am truly blessed to be her mom.

She had a family party where all she wanted was to eat was clam chowder, canned green beans and ice cream cake. She was very specific...She had a friends party and since creed was only a couple weeks old and I didn't have a party in me we hired the party out. They went to a gymnastics place and did tumbling etc then had pizza. She also got her ears pierced about a week after her birthday.

I wasn't sure she would go through with it (she has a serious aversion to anything that might remotely hurt) and I really didn't care if she got them done or not. I was really proud though when after the first ear was done that she cried but sucked it up and said do the other one now...It took a lot for her to do it. It was also SUPER traumatic when she discovered she had to take them out at soccer games....oops! Bad timing on my part.

Eight is a big birthday in our church because you can choose to be baptized which Cami did. I was also really proud of her for showing courage at her baptism. Cami would rather drive nails under her own fingernails than be the center of any attention (remember her aversion to pain and you will realize this is big). When she realized people might be watching she broke down in tears. I talked to her and told her she didn't have to do this but I would help her if she wanted me to. She said say a little prayer with me and we did and she wiped her tears away and got up and walked into the fount. She is so powerful when she overcomes obstacles and I love being part of it.

Anyway here she is in her white dress, opening a present, and having her party. I love this kid!