Early this year I was promoted to office manager after eight years at the same company, which still doesn't feel quite real some mornings. Lila's a senior in high school now, looking at colleges, and we actually enjoy planning the campus visits together -- a far cry from how tense things were between us a few years back. This photo is from a weekend trip we took to look at one of her top choices -- we're both grinning, mid-laugh at some joke I can't even remember now. I still think sometimes about the childhood I couldn't give her early on, but watching who she's turned into, I don't carry much guilt about it anymore. We talk now, really talk, and that's worth more to me than any of the years we lost.