It was a year ago that we spent that awesome weekend in San Francisco! The fact that my daughter wanted to spend her 16th birthday with no one but her mother, walking around the city, going to Alcatraz and seeing “Wicked”, it makes me proud to call you my daughter.

Now it’s a totally new time in our lives. In your sixteenth year everything in our lives changed for what we thought we wouldn’t bounce back from. You were my strength, my guide through the rough patches and now when I think about how you survived all that with grace, it makes me wish I was as strong as you are and have always been.

Grandma Del, who you are named after, told me that your name means, ‘dear friend’.  It may or not really mean that, but that is what she told me and since she was the smartest woman I ever knew, I am prone to blindly believe her.  You are a dear friend. You’ve always been one of my bestest friends. You listen, you always speak your mind and you love with all of you.
If there is a definition to your name that I could add, it would be ‘courageous, brave, fearless’
You never really crawled. You stood up next to table and strengthened your legs and when you got down on that floor and realized the only thing you could do was ‘army crawl’ or move backwards you decided to give that ‘walking’ thing a shot.  9 steps on your first try.
That seems to have been the theme of your life. When you tried something and it didn’t work out the way you thought it should, you went headstrong into doing what needed to be done, the right way.
Training wheels on a bike? That didn’t last too long because the first time you fell off it, you got up and looked at your daddy as if it was his fault because he didn’t remove those damn wheels.
The thought of you driving a car scared me shitless. You learned, you listened, you fought me on certain things…but you adjusted the way you drive and you actually drive safer than I do now.
You would think the last thing on this list would be you skydiving. It’s not. Yes, in your SIXTEENTH year, you jumped from a plane TWICE. That is two times more than anyone will ever try.  I know in the years to come there will be many met goals in your skydiving future.

The last thing on the list of reasons of why I think you’re one of the most brave women I know, is your love for Patrick.
When things came into light and the man you loved like a father walked out, you saw how damaged I was. You didn’t want to feel that pain and you walked away from your relationship with  Patrick.  You also know that you have a strength that far exceeds my own, and you allowed him back into your life for all the reasons I thought he shouldn’t be there.  You are the exception to the rule of ‘long distance relationship’. You have managed to have your own life and not miss out any of your high school activities.  Patrick also knows that you love him and you always make time to make him feel special and include him in on what you do as if he was right there with you.
He flew from Virgina to welcome this beautiful new year in.  He also flew here to be at your side for your junior prom.  He did this because you inspire love and devotion. You are, and always have been, a no shit kinda girl.

Thank you for showing me that sometimes things get shitty, sometimes things aren’t as easy as they should be, but be brave and get through it and the people that truly love you, that truly KNOW you will be the ones standing by your side and instead of being resentful of your happiness, they relish in it with you.

You’re my inspiration, Kara Lynn Stone.  Being your mother has been an honor that no one will be able to take away from me.