When you plan something to occur in eight years, you try to imagine what things will be like, but it's not an easy thing to do, when one of those things is your child. I started planning this trip when Hana Girl was five years old and Kealia was two. I planned the trip to occur just prior to Hana Girl starting high school, and then I realized...that meant she would be 13! The dreaded age when girls start to hate their moms and talk sarcastically and listen to loud music and Roll their Eyes! Surely this won't happen to me I thought...but what if it does??? Then, I tried to see it from her perspective, trapped in a minivan with her mom and little sister for five and half months, while being 13. Ugh!
Here we are three months before we're set to depart and I have a happy, joyful, enthusiastic soon to be 10 year old named Kealia. So soon, her BIG double digit birthday is in two days. I also have a full fledged thirteen year old. The good news is...it's not so bad. Yeah, she is starting to figure out that I don't know everything and that I make lots of mistakes, too. She is getting sarcastic and at the same time witty, so I try to appreciate her humor and let the sarcasm ease by (like a spoonful of sugar with medicine). The loud music is mostly Bieber which is not as bad as it could be, AND, the eyeball rolling, well, let's just say it's a good thing those beautiful big brown peeps are attached to their sockets. They go round and round.
The truth is, Hana Girl is one very special girl. She's 13-ish, but still a joy! She is beautiful, smart, compassionate, talented, hard working, patient, determined, kind, and funny. I love my Hana Girl and I wouldn't have her any other age. I kinda like this 13 year old thing. She won't be 13 forever. In fact, she should have her 14th birthday somewhere around Colonial Village Williamsburg. She was complaining about that and her aunty told her but it's such a great place to learn about history and our nation and proud traditions. Her response, "I was hoping for Mall of America." Of course you were Hana Girl. That's just as it should be!
