August 1, 2026

Lauren is 22 today. She learned she was pregnant just days before her 21st birthday, so she never got to raise a glass to celebrate. She’s had a big year becoming Bennett’s mom, and she and Gavin are rocking parenthood.

Like a lot of parents of grown kids, Paul and I won’t get to see our girl on her birthday. Gavin’s union lineman job has him accepting jobs all over the country. He will work in a location for a few months then choose a different job, different location and move on down the way. Gav would come home as often as he could on long weekends and between jobs, but Lauren and the dogs were home a lot without him. He was home for more than a month around Bennett’s arrival, then went back to work in Ohio. They quickly decided Lauren and Bennett would travel with him, so they have been living together in their big fifth wheel camper in Ohio for about two months now, and loving it. They still have their house in Pilot Mountain, and they are driving home probably tomorrow to catch up with doctor visits and things, We will celebrate Lauren’s birthday on Monday night. We FaceTime most nights to see how Bennett is growing and changing, but I can’t wait to hug all three of them and hear all the stories.

I can’t say that lifestyle would be for me. I like a bit more space and permanence. I moved around a lot growing up and didn’t feel settled until we moved to this house 19 years ago. It took me a few years after that to really feel grounded and secure enough to plant things in the ground here instead of just in pots. So camper life with its lack of solid footing feels too much like changing schools every year in elementary school used to. But I do respect the Hawes commitment to preserving their little family through this amazing adventure. And I think it’s just what they need to do.

I’ve been calling Lauren My Lovely since she was fresh from the womb. It always seemed to fit her and was just the way my mind always thought of her when sentiment and hopes and promises and goodness and emotions and tender feelings needed to be named. My Lovely. And she always has been lovely. Flawed to be certain, though less than you’d expect with the parents she was raised by. But Lauren is genuinely lovely of face and heart and manner.

The day of her wedding to Gavin, she pressed a little booklet into my hand before we said goodbye. The front cover says Momma, and inside it’s just a few pages handwritten by her. It’s the tenderest gift she’s ever given me aside from herself. She blessed me on every page. But what caught my breath and made me cry was how she signed the last page…”I love you—Lovely.”

How many times have I called her My Lovely through the years? How many times have I wondered if she ever really connected with that nick name and if she understood that to me, it wasn’t just a nickname. It is what I believe about her. But with those sign-off words, at least to this Momma who maybe just reads it the way I need to read it and you won’t change my mind, she claimed what I’ve always known about her to be true. She is lovely.

She is so much and so many things, but My Lovely is what she is to my heart. She is good in an honest and true fashion. She is strong and a total badass with now 9 surgeries (let’s please stop). She is dedicated and hardworking. She is wrong sometimes and hard-headed. She is afraid of losing control. Anxious. Humble and humbling. Child of the Most High King. She is Ruth saying “where you go, I will go.” A natural-born wife and mother. Funny and kind. She is right sometimes and she knows it. She is My Lovely.

I miss My Lovely. It surprises me that she’s chosen to be so far away when as a little girl she wouldn’t wander any farther than her arms could reach for my legs, as she’d hide behind my knees anytime she was shy and nervous. Now she’s in Ohio and I am sure that won’t be the farthest she goes.

Happy happy birthday. I miss you, My Lovely.