On Tuesday, our oldest (16) took responsibility for making sure that both she and her two younger siblings got up on time for school so that her dad could be away in the morning to help his brother and family make it to the airport on time.

On Thursday, we proudly got to watch as that same teen was inducted into the National Honor Society.

On Sunday, she got her belly-button pierced, just a few hours after she helped with the fellowship / coffee hour at church. Hey, the first two examples, along with many others, show that she has a pretty good head on her shoulders, as well as a heart for others. That she now has a hole in her belly button isn’t an option I’d have picked for her, but we’re getting to the stage where she gets to make decisions that we disagree with, and we get to enjoy watching the paths she considers and chooses. (She did opt out of getting facial piercings, and told her younger sis she thought those were cool but would have made her unemployable…)

By the way, that younger sis is pretty awesome, too – she went with her sis to hold her hand and support her through the belly button piercing procedure. They then went together to have a sister bonding day at the nail salon.

I love getting to be the parent of these kids!