The past 17 years have gone by so quickly. Yesterday you were a newborn gripping my finger with your whole hand, and yesterday you were taking your first steps in our empty rooms on as we packed up to leave Missouri, and yesterday you were trying your first solid food and watching “Ferris Bueller” for the fiftieth time and singing along to “Jelly Man Kelly” and getting your black belt and making me laugh and cry with your acting and heading off to public school for the first time. And today you are 17, and soon it will be tomorrow, and before I can blink twice it’ll be next year and you’ll be off to college.

And Poppy, I am so, so proud of you. 

It has been and always will be one of the greatest privileges of my life to be your mom. What a gift you are to me.

You are everything I hoped you’d be from the first moment I looked into your wide blue eyes. You are kind. You have a tender heart. You love ferociously. You are responsible and trustworthy. You are smart, and you are wise, and you are persistent.

Now the whole world is waiting for you, my sweet potato. I can’t wait to see what you make of it.

I love you forever, kiddo.