I've shared the following picture with you about a year ago in December. This is a picture of DD and myself the day we brought her home from the hospital....Dec. 25, 1979. Isn't she a cutie!
At this point in her life, we had no idea what the future held for her. We hoped we could nurture her and teach her to be a caring and decent young woman. As she grew, she quickly showed us that she had an independent nature. She wasn't going to follow the rules of being a cuddly little thing that loved pink and wore ruffles. She was known to go in her room, remove the clothes I had put on her....and come out in her own choice of clothing. She was a daddy's girl and she loved wearing his cap. She's still a cutie in this mother's eye!
If I asked you now what you thought she might become by looking at the above photo......I bet the responses would be very interesting. I must tell you that she did have a very feminine side. There were times when she really did like to dress up in pink and ruffles.........and she loved her baby dolls. She's a doll collector today.
She even took time to stop and smell the flowers as she grew.
When she started school, she had a real drive to learn. She wanted to read right away....and she developed a love of books that continues with her today. I vividly remember her 4th grade year of school. One of her teachers recruited her to try out for a ready writing competition. The kids were given a topic to write about and they had to write an essay within a certain amount of time. The topic she was given was...."Who would you like to be like when you grow up?"If I remember correctly, she placed 3rd in the competition with several other schools. She came home and told me how her teacher had complimented her on the maturity of her essay. DD had written in that essay that she wanted to grow up to be a lawyer like Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. We weren't a family with any lawyers and we had not made it a practice to discussed the Supreme Court in our house, but we did encourage our kids to learn about the current events of the day. Again, if my memory is correct, this is about the time that Sandra D. O'Connor was selected to be a SC justice and that made a big impression on DD. I always told her you can be what you want when you grow up if you work hard enough. I thought she would pursue a career in writing or maybe in library science.
She worked hard through school, graduated from high school with honors, went on to college and got her BS in Computer Science. We were so proud when she graduated from college. She got a job working in computers, but I guess that 4th grade dream of becoming a lawyer was still very much alive in her because she saved every penny she made and one day told us she was leaving her job and going to law school. She paid her own way with the money she had saved and with a scholarship. We were so proud when she graduated after 3 long, hard years. That's her receiving her law diploma.
And yesterday she got the good news that she passed her bar exam and will officially be sworn in as a lawyer in the great state of Texas on November 18!! DH and I are so proud and in these turbulent times.....a little good news is so welcomed! Now we are hoping she will be able to find a job and become a good lawyer who can truly help make this world a better place.
