Our allergic child is 13 today.  Like all parents, I feel that sometimes 13 years have zipped past while other times I feel like time has stood still.  I still feel like a young woman but the obvious signs such as 2 teenagers in the house now, not to mention the mirror, would prove otherwise.

I do find that my husband and I are different from many other parents in the way that we celebrate each birthday of our youngest child; we celebrate that we got her to another birthday unharmed.  At first, I thought that we were an anomaly and I wasn’t telling too many people how we viewed these birthday milestones.  But it turns out that other parents do this too.  A couple of our staff members are like that because one has a child with diabetes while another almost lost her child 4 years ago when he was brain injured.

I suppose it’s a little morbid to think this way but it makes sense when you think about what we live with every day.  Even though we live each day with the appearance of being  “normal”, there’s always that niggling little fear of a life threatening reaction that we tuck away in a little compartment so that we don’t drive ourselves crazy with the what if? scenarios.

  So, while it might be weird, I’m really happy my daughter’s having a birthday this year and I’m hoping for many more to come.