Happy Birthday Sara

My one and only girl has her birthday today. I tried to make the day a little special for her-we decorated the house and Jeff took on her chores for the evening. One of her friends gave her colored contact lenses in green, which thrilled her, and I got her a book she wanted. Other gifts have come here and there. We once made each child breakfast in bed, but that is hard now on weekday mornings that start at O-Dark-Thirty. We have plans for a family dinner of her favorite foods this Saturday, and maybe one of the days this week I'll surprise her with breakfast in bed. Here are some things I love about my Sara:

• She's curious about the world and loves to try different things
  
• She is great at Math
• She is kind to little children
• She loves her friends
• She has deep feelings about what she believes and she tries hard to live with integrity
• She has a wonderful sense of humor
• And of course many, many more things
  

She was born on a Wednesday evening. I was 27 years old. She was about 3 1/2 weeks early and they had tried to stop my labor (because of my previous C-sections) but the anti-labor meds made my heart rate too high so she came on her own time. Eric was down in D.C. in evening law school, and I think he might have had a final that night. We had it all planned for her to come AFTER the semester ended. Ha ha. So, since Eric wasn't around, my younger brother took me to the hospital and, knowing he wanted to be a doctor, I invited him to stay after Eric finally got there and watch Sara be born. She came, like all my others, by way of a good, peaceful, uncomplicated C-section. That may sound like an impossibility to some, but that was my birth experience and each one was beautiful in its way. Anyway, I was able to hold her soon after her birth, nurse her without any problems and, even at a few weeks early, she was over 6 pounds and perfect. She had a ton of auburn hair and very fat cheeks. For the previous three boys, "Kate" had always been my girl name, after Eric's grandmother, but when this little girl was born, "Kate" just didn't feel right, so she was named for a dear friend. It fit somewhat with family tradition as our oldest son is named for one of Eric's special friends. Her middle name is an amalgamation of Eric's mom Mary Anne and my mom Christine: Christianne

This picture, while not ideal of her face, shows her gorgeous hair:
This one is her almost 10 years ago, as she started kindergarten:
I'm so glad I have one daughter. She is so different from her 4 brothers, yet they all fit together as a set, and I really like that.