My little girl turns sixteen today.\u00a0 I’m sitting at a little desk at a bay window in the living room of my home, the home where my little girl has grown up, reflecting on time.<\/p>\n
Scraps of memory:<\/p>\n
Eighteen years ago, my wife and I, married two years,\u00a0walked into the very spot where I now sit with a real estate agent, and we both knew instantly that this house would become our home.<\/p>\n
Sixteen years ago in March.\u00a0\u00a0We\u00a0are home from the hospital — with no instruction manual! —\u00a0and a beautiful, perfect baby girl lies in the car seat.\u00a0 On the very spot where I now sit, I\u00a0hold this precious gift in my arms and promise her I’ll do my best for her.<\/p>\n
Thirteen years ago in December.\u00a0 There\u00a0is a Christmas tree in the corner, right next to where my desk is now.\u00a0 My little girl\u00a0is hanging decorations, singing “Hallelujah,” tossing her hands in the air.<\/p>\n
Ten years ago, in this room, I am crouched on the floor, covered in a blanket.\u00a0 My little girls is running in circles around me, laughing, waiting for the “monster” to grab her with the blanket and tickle her toes.<\/p>\n
This tiny little living room has seen lots of life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My little girl turns sixteen today.\u00a0 I’m sitting at a little desk at a bay window in the living room of my home, the home where my little girl has grown up, reflecting on time. Scraps of memory: Eighteen years ago, my wife and I, married two years,\u00a0walked into the very spot where I now […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spirituality"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p824rZ-u4","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1864\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}