16 years...

On this day 16 years ago... the most beautiful girl in the world was born...
It was a cold day, the clouds were building. It was 6 days shy of my 20th birthday and I was scared to death. I was becoming a father! A parent... that was a life changing experience. I had gone through all the classes to be ringside for the delivery. Hours into the labor, a little heartbeat got lost. So I was forced to sign a paper that said one or both of them might not make it, they were doing a C-section.
Moments seemed like hours in that drab waiting room, there in that country town hospital. I must have counted the bricks on the wall a million times, wore a path pacing on the musty carpet and said so many prayers I forgot if they made any sense. My stomach churned and my head reeled, I felt cheated by not being able to be in there as I had planned.
Then the nurse came to get me... a baby girl! Dark hair and eyes and a rosy red cheeks. Wow what a relief, they were both ok! The first time I held her, those tiny fingers gripped my fingertip. I was in awe! I didn't sleep much that night, sitting by her mother's bed. going to the window of the nursery to peer inside and see my precious baby girl's pink stocking-ed head nuzzled in that weird plastic bed.
I have watched that baby girl grow to be a beautiful young woman! One who makes me so proud to be her dad! The dark eyes turned bright blue/hazel the hair long and blonde. A smile that would dazzle the dreariest day! She's a sister, a musician. a mathmatician, a lady, a comic, she is my Katie!
I love you my beautiful daughter!
Happy sweet 16!
Love, DAD