Mushu, My Baby's Grown Up (And Saving China!)

Ah, Mushu's line stuck to me.

It seems like yesterday when I was holding my daughter in my arms. Her whole frail body barely spanning the length of my forearm. Now, just barely 15 years after, she's even taller than I. Not that I'm complaining, but I guess that's how parents are. We love to think and play the all-protective, ominous, and omniscient creatures from Mount Olympus. Well, at least that's how I have always been to my daughter.

Reality struck me light lightning though. Last week it dawned upon that my little girl is no longer a little girl. She had indeed grown up. We have this writings on the side of her door. Tiny streaks that look like dashes with some dates on them. Actually, I record her height there. I am not good at keeping things because when I keep them I don't find them anymore until probably a century after. LOL. We had recorded her height last January, a few weeks after she had gotten her brace. That time, she was about .5 of an inch shorter than I. Thus, I didn't expect her to grow so fast. After all, she's almost 15 and girls her age grow an inch a year on the average. Besides, with her scoliosis, it's not good for her to add so much to her height. But then again, the additional inches could probably be a result of her brace. If you recall she's now wearing a milwaukee brace. It runs a little lower than her chin to her hips, the purpose of which is to keep her back and neck straight which hopefully will stop her spine from further curvature. We had this conclusion because we measured her height without the brace and she seemed half an inch shorter than when she had it on.

And then there's the flashback that indeed these past years we hardly got to watch movies, nor do most of the things we did when she was in her gradeschool. Now, she has more work to do that sometimes we have to leave home without her - something that we had very rarely done in her younger years.

Whatever the reason is, she is just a few years from adulthood. With that realization come the fear and the excitement that she does have to face life and its beatings very soon. I'm scared. We hear and read about things that befall children and adults. I guess there's no other one who can help her - not me nor her dad - when she does grow up and have a life of her own. Yes, Mushu, she's grown up. But as she grows, I hope and pray that she lives a life according to what she knows is right. Only God can truly help her. And I know God will.

May the King of Kings, Jehovah, bless you, my sweet, sweet daughter.