It's MY birthday!

35 years ago....ouch. That hurts.
Practice. Practice.

35 years ago today....ugh.
No pain. No gain.

35 years ago today I was born. December 30, 1979.
Whew. I did it. Freeing really.

You've probably never noticed how often you are asked for your birthdate. It's used as an important piece of information for keeping records. I know how often because when that's asked of a couple people around here, inevitably, there is a long and cheerful argument about whose birthday it is...

You see, 18 years ago today, a little boy was born. December 30, 1996. It was my 17th birthday.
(No, I wasn't a teenage mother. Although, I honor, support, and cherish teen moms!!)

I remember pretty clearly my 17th birthday. I worked during the day, went shopping to spend my hard earned cash, and spent the night at a hotel with gal pals. Boy--- did my parents trust us! We had a wildly good time but even at the prudent age of 17 we knew it was more fun without boys! We went swimming, played truth or dare, scoured magazines, made confessions and enjoyed all that 17 brings. Looking back we should have admired our youthful energy and bodies as well -- ha!
(Hailey -- get no ideas -- times have changed. You are not having a hotel party anytime soon.)

On that same day Cowboy was becoming a first time Dad. They named him Daniel Wayne Register.

For you created my inmost being;

    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

14 

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

    your works are wonderful,

    I know that full well.

If you had pulled me aside from that hotel party and said "Hey, by the way, your oldest son was just born...and he's going to really need you someday. Get ready." I would have laughed you right on out of there with my girlfriends helping each step of the way.

That's the funny thing about how God works. He doesn't really tell us what he's preparing us for.
13 

15 16 

Your eyes saw my unformed body;

    all the days ordained for me were written in your book

    before one of them came to be.

In God's book, Daniel's life had been written. God probably even smirked when he wrote  how just before I turned thirty five --  He had a surprise for the savvy superwoman that I thought was me. He didn't come bundled up in baby blue. In fact, there wasn't even nine months to prepare. However, as I think back on the twists and turns of the beautiful and painful events that have molded me since the innocence of that 17th birthday --- I see it. God has been preparing me.

17 

How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] God!

    How vast is the sum of them!

18 

Psalm 139