About Jamie

Today is my daughter Jamie's 12th birthday. Wow. This is the first time I have ever had a child who is twelve. I have always said that the age of child we are most qualified to parent is the age our youngest child just left. That means I am good to go with babies through 7 years.

12 seems the start of something new. Even more than 13, which is the beginning of "teen" (although girls seem to be getting scarily more mature earlier than when I was younger). 11 seemed to still have its roots in the early years....stretching back to cradle days. 12 seems more like a branch.... reaching out towards the fullness of bloom when little Jamie will leave home.

Its not just that I have lost the kid's menu. Its that Jamie is now in that strange place where she contemplates both playing with dolls and going to the school dance with a boy. (please insert here the Rodney Atkins song about cleaning his gun).

Jamie is beautiful, intelligent, creative, imaginative, and loyal. All of this works against her in middle school. She cares about justice and how other people are treated, which leads to nothing but misery. She is trying to figure herself out which is impossible and I am trying to figure out what are hormones and what is a serious problem and what I can possibly do about any of it anyway.

But I am so proud of her and could explode and I love her so much it hurts and I pray that she be happy, healthy and whole and that God will give her the strength to overcome my inadequacies as a father.