Twenty-three years ago I found myself in a hospital on the Air Force base that was being remodeled. You would be in your room and could hear the lady down the hall giving birth. 😮 🤭
The only way you could call the nurse was with a little bell like you would find in a post office. 🛎 Ding!
The problem was the nurse would know the general direction the from which the bell rang, but could only locate the patient by poking her head in each door until she found the ringer. 🛎
It was a crazy way to welcome this baby girl into the world. 👶 🎀
From day one Laura Jean was a happy and content baby. Laid back, easy going and she even slept 5 hours through the night right out of the hospital. Yesss!! Score one for mom who already had a 21 month old!
As a toddler she was fearless, she climbed out of her crib and stood on tables long before she even took her first steps at a year old.
When Laura Jean was four years old, she took her first ballet class. This was the beginning of her lifelong passion for dance. 💖
Also, when she was four she decided she wanted the training wheels off of her bike, because her brother, who was almost two years older, had just learned to ride without his. Her dad said, “No, you are too little.” But no wasn’t the answer for this determined little girl. She grabbed her brother’s bike and rode back and forth across the grass that afternoon until she mastered it.
When Laura turned ten years old she loved American Girl dolls. She had two dolls; Laura, the look alike doll, and Kirsten, the pioneer doll. So my best friend and I took our girls to the American Girl Store in Chicago. The store had a doll beauty salon, hospital, and museum. The highlight was a tea party with birthday cake for the girls and dolls. It was an amazing trip and a dream come true for a ten year old girl.
When Laura Jean was 13, she taught her first ballet class. She was homeschooled, but took classes at a classical home education program one day a week with other homeschoolers. She started the class on her lunch hour for 2-5 year olds. It was too sweet! 💗
The following year she branched out on her own, and offered a homeschool ballet class for 4-10 year olds at a friend’s church. She totally ran the entire business from advertising, registering students, writing up lesson plans, choreographing performances and so on. I only helped by collecting tuition and providing crowd control.
During Laura’s teen years everything revolved around ballet. She loved it so much and spent her summers attending ballet intensives. She attended Karen Napier’s Audience of One. (AOO). First she was a student teacher, by her last year of high school she was a paid teacher, and still teaches there to this day.
When she was a young teen she met Shawn Bornemann, (aka Shawn Black) who was a retired prima ballerina turned homeschool mom. Shawn Black had danced in the world renown American Ballet Theatre in NYC with Baryshnikov and other famous dancers. Shawn had more influence in Laura’s life than any other person except for her mom. (aka me) She trained with Laura Jean, took her to summer intensives, choreographed dances for her and shared her passion for beautiful classical ballet.
When Laura graduated from high school she received two different local scholarships, one from Tyndall Federal Credit Union & the other from the St Andrews Civic Club. This was awesome because money was tight, and I wasn’t sure how I would be able to put her through college. Thankfully, she saved a good portion from teaching dance and along with Pell Grants we were able to make college a reality. 👩🎓
She knew from the beginning that she was interested in some sort of medical field. She had it narrowed down to two occupations and through volunteering at the local hospitals she chose the Physical Therapy Assistant (PTA) program at GCSC. 👩⚕️
While Laura Jean was in college, she continued to teach ballet with AOO, and she worked at Target. That is where she met her fiancée, Jacob. They were just friends for the first year, then he won her heart and they began dating. 😍
Which brings me to today. Today my daughter turned 23. She is currently in her last seven weeks of clinicals for the PTA program. She will graduate in May. She still loves dance and still teaches for AOO. She just got engaged three weeks ago, and will be married within the next year.
The cool thing is Laura Jean is the real deal. She is still fearless, loves life and shares that passion with others. She is smart, thoughtful, funny, kind, silly and full of joy & laughter. But don’t let the ridiculousness, she gets from her mom, fool you, she still has the same steadfast determination to accomplish her dreams and goals, as she did as a four year old riding her brorher’s bike across the lawn. She still has the creativity and ingenuity to open new doors of opportunity, as that 13 year old who began her own ballet class. She has been my very best friend since she was a young adult, and soon she will marry her very best friend for a happily ever after. ❤️
I can’t wait to see what the future holds. I know it will be incredible and filled with many lively adventures. Beacause in the words of one of her favorite movies, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
Happy Birthday Laura Jean!! 
I love you!! 💕 
Taking Back Happy 