Our Daughter

Each year your birthday is an enduring blessing to us.

Our daughter is an amazing woman, beautiful, positive, helpful, strong, resilient, and able to dig in a push forward even in the most difficult conditions.

Most people will never know the struggles and challenges life has peppered her path with – family and friends will never understand her ability to battle internal trials, getting lost in her own thoughts and still able to raise up and press through barriers that hold most of us all back.

We just see that she is always there – regularly rebounding and ready for the next thing (good or bad) – she’s strong and positive, even as we stand on the sideline unsure and confused – she has the gift of calm and assurance even if we’re unsure about our next step.

On the darkest of days, she can see beauty and value in others – balancing grace and shrewdness even if she feels her own reflection threatens her abilities.

The last few years we’ve learned many things – our perception of things has been altered – our daughter changed our world – from childhood, through many adversities, until this very moment she is constantly teaching us things about ourselves and life around us.

Through her eyes and in her pain, she has taught us through the determined way she carries herself as she pushes through trials and life’s unexpected difficulties – she regularly shows us tremendous courage.

She taught us that it’s okay to have bad days – we don’t have to pretend all is well – she believes in better days and good times are ahead for all of us – she believes there is strength and comfort in family, friends, and foundational beliefs – she’s shown us we can battle life’s perplexing problems and still get up and be strong each day.

We’re so proud of our daughter – she has come a long way from the little girl mustering up courage each time we moved her to a new community – she’s shown us that physical, relational, financial, emotional difficulties show up in all of our lives – but they don’t define who we are – we are defined by our character, our will to fight, and to get back up each day – that is true courage, and that is our daughter.

Happy Birthday Diana – you are such a blessing to us – we love you so much.