Dear Mary Beth,

I remember that sonogram so clearly. The doctor pointed to what he called a "butterfly" and told me that our boy streak was a thing of the past. I fairly flew down the hallway to the office of his physician's assistant--something in me knew that I needed a female to celebrate properly. I carefully carried my black and white photo home and showed it to Daddy without a word. He took one look and said, "It's Mama's best friend!"

Truer words were never spoken. You are growing into the finest friend I could ever hope to have. You are faith-filled and cheerful, idealistic and optimistic. You have a sparkling sense of adventure and a ready laugh. And you care. You care about important things and you think deep thoughts. We laugh about your overuse of exclamation points, but, really, I know they suit you well. You seem to exclaim over life in happy wonderment more often than not. Ordinary periods just don't suit you; you need exclamation points.

I asked you to choose the pictures for this post and you loaded them up and saved them in draft before I even began to write. It doesn't surprise me one bit that you chose pictures with Sarah Annie in them. You are the sunshine in the world of three little girls. Rarely, are you without one or all of them. They are blessed beyond words to have you in their lives, sprinkling creativity and good cheer on their sweet childhood days.

Here we are, my precious little girl, at the end of your little girlhood. Thank you for granting me the great gift of growing alongside you. I was ever so blessed to share your sunny, wonder years with you. Today, you are a teenager. I'm looking forward with delight (and a little trepidation;-) to the days ahead of us. And I know with all confidence that my Mary Sunshine you will always, always be.

I love, love, love you!

Mama