Dear Adeline,

Tomorrow you will be a year old. I have loved being your Mama every single day. Your sweet smiles and your belly laughs, your head full of soft duckling fuzz and your crooked little wiggly toes! Your first Mowgli crawl, first time splashing in the bath and the day you swung your little body around in a field of daisies to sit up for the first time. Even on the hard days and the sick days, the nights with no sleep, the little frustrations... through all of it, I have loved being your Mama.

Photo by Aimee Pool Photography

 When they placed you on my chest, I was in awe. Shocked by you.You were so tiny and perfect. I kissed your forehead. I rubbed your little red back. I could barely speak. You lay on my chest, listening to my heart beat. I felt your small breaths, in and out, in and out with each wail. So new to the world. You blinked your little eyes up at me, taking it all in. Sweet girl, you've been alert from the very first moment.


You are spunky and FUNNY! So curious and quick. You clap your hands and laugh, you reach your little hand out to share your bites of food and are so thoughtful. You light up around others. You love to be around other babies and are so gentle and kind. You are loving and good. I want you to know that. You are a worthwhile person.

Photo by Aimee Pool Photography

Photo by Jaymie Moore Photography

I don't know what you will do with your life. I don't care if you are a doctor or a teacher, a carpenter, an artist or a cook. I don't care if you help the entire world or just a lady down the road so long as the world is just a little bit better because you are in it. And it already is, Adeline! You have brought our whole family closer than ever before.

Photo by Aimee Pool Photography

There is only one thing that I really hope for you. Today while we were at the library, you picked out two crayons from the basket. You held one in each hand, looked at them both and then wildly scribbled all over the paper, blue and red. Outside the lines, girlfriend. You were so friggin' happy; this huge smile lit across your face, those little eyes dancing. I want you to find joy, Adeline. In the big things. In the small things. Within yourself, in others, wherever you can, find joy.

Photo by Jaymie Moore Photography

Catch it with your arms open wide. And maybe someday, on a day filled with joy, you will be in a room somewhere and a tiny breath of heaven will land on your chest. In that second, maybe you will know. That unconditional love.


The kind I have for you.

Your Mama

~~~

"Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth." Khalil Gibran

~~~