We managed to sail through Omi's Sweet 16 with grace and ease and smiles on her face. Between "girl's day out" with pedicures, lunch and shopping and Roaring Springs Trip and her actual birthday day with her first taste of sushi, a visit to the chocolate bar, her tattoo, big ol' family dinner with crab, and presents and cake....by the time it was over with she felt thoroughly loved and supported and excited.
It's hard to decide what to do for your daughter's sweet 16. Or at last it was for us. If we were Mexican, she would have had a huge Quinceanra to celebrate her 15th birthday...complete with ball gown and DJ. If we were over the top rich and if she had tons of friends, I suppose it could have been a huge event like a wedding reception, but that is so not the way we do things around here, anyway. Besides, she really doesn't have that many friends. She has 2 girl friends she can count on. The rest are guy friends. I don't see them getting dressed up in ball gowns. *laugh* And add to that, dealing with the this mile marker birthday without her brother. So ya....we were at a loss as to what to do other than to surround her with fun things to do with the family. And to listen to my intuition. Naomi told me she had been looking for stuffed "rubber duckies" to cuddle with; but she had been looking on line and I only had 2 days to get one at that point. I went looking all over town. NOTHING. And I was all kinds of cranky. But I kept hearing Nick, "it's here; keep looking". I was in toys r us. He sent me there. He told me to keep looking. I went up and down isles. I went through the stuffed animal section. I went through the baby section. I went everywhere.. NOTHING. I was so damned cranky and feeling like a failure. Then all of a sudden, he told me to look down. I had been down this isle 3 times.. the stuffed animal isle. I looked down and there it was... a "rubber ducky" blanket that had a hoodie and a place to put your hands for the feet. It even has a duck tail in the back. And I heard Nick, "Instead of her hugging the rubber ducky, the rubber ducky will be hugging her and that is what she really needs, Mom." Then I went to Hallmark to go card shopping. A Sweet 16 birthday requires hallmark. I get so overwhelmed in that store when I'm looking for cards. But I kept hearing Nick, "Mom, there is a card here that is appropriate for Happy Orbit Day....it is from me. You need to find it." I looked. I found the cards for "Sweet 16" and I picked those out, but I kept hearing Nick. "It's here mom, find it." I kept scanning and looking. There it was. A card with what looked like the sun. On the front, it said, "Shine" and inside, it said something about adventure under the sun. It truly was an "orbit day" card. I hard Nick, "Yes! That is the one! That is from me!" So with tears in my eyes, I grabbed the envelope. Nick would be at her birthday. He picked out her present. He picked out her card. He would be there. I wrote in the card for him and shared this story with Omi...so she knew it was from him. But on the outside of the envelope it said, "To Omi from Nick" and it about made her cry. She managed to hold back the tears, and she felt him there with her. She KNEW the card and the present were from him.
Her other presents made her smile too. She had been asking for a FitBit like device, and Suzy made that happen with an actual FitBit and Omi is in love with seeing how her body is doing. Her Doctor Who Dress was a HUGE hit! The one hoodie she has been asking for ever since her last birthday came from Michael. It was a Toothless Cosplay hoodie...complete with wings, built in feet with claws, and removable tail. She was so freakin' excited!!!!! She also received a small stuffed Toothless from her grandparents, and she adores that. And then there is her tattoo. She laid on her belly while the amazing Donna worked on that tattoo for like an hour and a half. Omi didn't complain once about the pain. She actually almost fell asleep. She said it felt soothing. And later she told me she felt Nick caressing her arm and her back while she was getting her tattoo.
And at the end of her birthday, the whole family took a family photo of our memorial tattoos. I have to say with that picture, I felt a chapter close, and another page turn. Our story continues.
Yesterday after watching an episode of Heartland where the girl has a sweet 16 birthday party, if she felt like she had a happy sweet 16, Omi got this look that she gets when she feels really loved and smiled and said, "Yes, I had a great sweet 16."
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