Happy Birthday Jules!

Today I am old. I know that I am old because my baby sister is 29 today. I am older than she is, so if she is 29... Heaven only knows how old that makes me!

It seems like for women 29 is more of a milestone birthday than 30 is. We get plagued with all these thoughts about what we have accomplished and if we are really ready to enter middle age and all that other stuff. If the 20's are about finding your place in this world, then the 30's are about being secure in that place we seem to have found ourselves.

I remember when my mom was expecting Julie, I believe she told us as we were coming home from a birthday party for Denise Bazo. I don't know if that is correct, but for some reason that is what I have in my head. I do know that mom was pretty sick, especially the few months before Julie was born. I remember cooking for the family. Now, we did have some older girls from church who came in some, and I'm sure my dad (who was an EXCELLENT cook) cooked a lot, but I know that I also cooked, standing on a chair in the kitchen, producing the 2 or 3 things I knew how to do. Scrambled eggs, hotdogs, macaroni and cheese. And please let me point out that the mac and cheese was REAL, not from a box with powdered cheese. Now... the eggs may or may not have been embellished with the addition of food coloring, and it's quite likely the mac and cheese had worcstishire sauce in it (I had a rather long "stage" of doing that to nearly everything), but it worked. I can only hope that my poor bedridden mom didn't have to eat these things and that someone was slipping her real food.
But I digress, this is about Julie. Anyway, I was sent to spend the night with the Massingill family while my grandma took Mom to the hossy to get Julie out. I got a call early in the morning letting me know that "cuddles" (as we had dubbed her in utero) was born and that she was a sister. I believe that was the last time she was called cuddles. No offence Julie, but you were a bit on the long and bony side.

There are a few other memories of Julie in her babyhood that I will not share, although for the right price, you may email me for details.

I am 7 1/2 years older than Julie, so by the time she was an actual person (as opposed to a cute little toddler kid) I was heading out for college. The times we did cross paths were a bit rocky at times, but even then ( as I was a SO mature college student and she was going through her own series of "stages") I was proud of her.

The summer she was 14 we went on TLC together. This is one of those things that was a mistake but was in fact, a "God-thing" The age limit for TLC was 15. I was supposed to go, but started feeling like I really belonged at home to spend time with Julie instead of trotting off to Guatemala. On the other hand, our team was made up of several of my very dear friends and I really wanted to go. I talked to Tom (team leader) about it and he told me to go talk to Mrs. B. Well, I did. And she said yes. Although I think I found out later that she didn't realize that Julie was too young. Anyway, we went together and I really started getting to know her. She also got to spend a lot of time with some of the best people I knew and I know that it was a very positive thing for her to get to know them.

I have so many other memories I could share, but that wasn't what I was intending to write about.
Julie, I have been in awe of you since you were a kid. We are so very different, in nearly every way, and in you I see so many things that I admire and wish I could be. You march to your own drum (forget the different drummer, you just play your own darn drum), you are strong, you stick up for the underdog, you see the worst in people but continually have faith in the best. You make your own rules and throw convention out the window. You are fiercely loyal. You are honest.... painfully so. I'd never want to meet you in a dark alley, but can't think of anyone I'd rather have beside me if I ever had to go down one myself. You ARE the caped avenger. You are an amazing friend, you give and give and give again. You have become an outstanding daughter (hmm, can I say that seeing as how I'm just a bystander and not the actual mother?) and I'm so proud of you.

You have made a place for yourself in your career. You have enough confidence to get the job done and enough humility to never stop learning more. I hope that the people who work beside you every day realize how fortunate they are to be around such an excellent human bean as you are. My prayer for you on this birthday is that you would find the same confidence in your "Julie" life as you have in your "medic" life. You knew even before you got out of high school what you wanted to become and you have done it. My challenge for you on this birthday is for you now to know who you want to become... and do it. My assurance for you on this birthday is that you are surrounded by people who love you and believe in you and are so stinkin' proud of you that we can hardly talk about you without sounding cheesy.

I love you Spotser, Happy 29th Birthday.