Lucky Me

I just got thru reading a post on another blog, Woulda Could Shouda, by a mom that has really been going thru a lot with her daughter.  You really have to visit her blog to get a good idea of what she's been going thru. (Make sure you have some time, and go back about a year ago in her posts to get the whole story.  It's worth reading.)  But it made me realize just how lucky I really am to have been blessed with the daughter that I have.  Literally from the day I found out I was pregnant with her, until today, I can honestly say she's the best thing that ever happened to me. 

I had an easy pregnancy.  (If you read the book, "What to Expect When You're Expecting," you'll see what I mean.  They could've written that book by my pregnancy.)  I had an easy labor.  I took Lamaze classes, and once I went into hard labor, I pushed twice and voila, she was here!

She slept thru the night, from the first night we brought her home.  She had a little touch of colic, but nothing that some Mylecon drops couldn't fix.  Oh, she had the normal childhood illnesses, Chicken Pox, etc.  But (knock on wood), she's never had a broken bone, never had to have her tonsils out, never even been in the hospital since we took her home from the one she was born in.  (She did have an unfortunate incident with a folding chair one Thanksgiving, but that's a story for another day.)

She's growing up on me way too fast, and the uneventful childhood she's led scares me to death.  I hesitate to even write this post, because I don't want to jinx anything tempt fate. I had a good friend in high school that was killed in a car wreck at 15.  The song "Only the Good Die Young" could've been written for her.  She was a wonderful person, gone too soon.  I'm terrified of something like that.  I'm not really the "worrier" type, but when it comes to my daughter, I am.  She's my everything, and I want to keep her as long as I can.  My own mother is pretty much my best friend, and I want to have that relationship with my daughter when she's an adult.

She's a young lady now, almost 17, and still a wonderful person.  I worry that I haven't done enough to teach her how to navigate the world, being that we're from a small town.  I worry that she'll go off to college and "go wild" like a lot of overprotected closely supervised children do.  I haven't sheltered her from everything like some parents do, but I do keep a short leash.  I worry that when she does get out on her own and has problems, she won't confide in me. 

I guess most of all..... I worry she won't need me anymore.

Any thoughts?