This moment in time Lorien...

The world is your oyster.  I don't know what this saying means.  I know it is supposed to indicate that you can have whatever you want in the world.  But I am not sure how that makes the world and oyster.  I guess maybe we are all grains of sand and we have the opportunity to irritate the heck out of the world in hopes of being turned into a pearl?  Is that it?  I don't know?  Somebody explain this one to me.

On to Lorien.  Is the world her oyster right now?  I think maybe she is the oyster and the world is the grain of sand right now.  She seems to have been loaded up with opportunities to be irritated to no end.  School has been moved online.  None of her classes have an interactive element.  They are all very boring.  She decided to stay at home for the online school year.  Her social engagements are strictly confined to screens: phone, tablet, laptop.  She spends all day and night in her little cave bed (the bottom bunk of a bunk bed shared with Colter) with her makeshift curtains drawn.  She sleeps a lot...I mean A LOT!  It is hard to find the motivation to get out there.  She does not want her parent's help.  She is hanging onto whatever independence she might still have by insisting we not talk to her about her future or possibilities.  The world is very sandy right now and Lorien is a very tender oyster.  

I'm trying to see that as a good thing?  In her tenderness she will have abundance and create more pearls than she can count because the world is so freaking annoying right now?  I do have so much faith in her as a human being.  I have seen her grow through challenging times over and over again.  Last school year was a doozie.  I didn't know how hard it was for her until we brought her home.  But she grew through the hardness.  She is so much wiser and mature now.  She sees teenage angst in a different light, I can tell you that much for sure.  

I am hopeful.  I hope for all of her dreams and all of mine for her.  I know she will do good things.  The world is her oyster...or she is an oyster for the world?  What did I land on for that?  Never mind.  Happy 19th birthday my Lorien dear.  

Stevie Nicks for Halloween.

Yearly pho at Pho Saigon for her birthday dinner.

Cake and presents at home with her wicked cool family.

Another birthday shared with her favorite sibling named Wyatt.