Zoe is 11

Eleven years ago . . . I became a mother.

Wow, the time sure flies!!! It's amazing how much she has grown and changed year after year . . . and how much my love for her grows and grows daily.

We are starting to struggle a little with our relationship. Don't get me wrong, we are very close and have a very strong mother/daughter bond that will last forever.

It's just the normal tensions that every mother and daughter go through.

It's hard with all the bouncing back and forth between child and young adult. She wants to be treated like a teen, but she's not one yet. She is mature past her years, but still innocent, and I don't want that changing yet.

And at the same time, I don't want to hold on too tight. I've been questioning myself daily with the little things. The little things that seem little to the eleven year old . . . but HUGE to the mother of the eleven year old.

There are the times that I treat her like an adult and she acts like a child . . . my first instinct is to get angry, but then I have to remind myself . . . Zoe's only a child.

A child that I still like to surprise with her birthday cake  : )

I still like to see her excitement that shows me the kid I know  : )

Zoe has truly been a gift. I don't think that I was completely ready to be a mother when she came into my world. She has made it easy to want to be a mother.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY ZOE!!!

You will always be my baby, and I may treat you like one for years to come. You may not like it, but I do it out of my love for you and my mother's instincts that you do not yet understand.

Just so at the end of every day,

you know that

I LOVE YOU WITH ALL MY HEART <3