525,600 Minutes x 5
Dear Little Girl,
Here it is December 2 yet again. Another 525,600 minutes has passed. And today you turned five years old.
I never know on these momentous occasions whether it is best to go back to the beginning or focus on the now. I think a few memories from the beginning are necessary to appreciate the now, though, so allow me a moment to remember the day you were born. I do, however, think it best to focus on the positive, so instead of recounting the terror of the beginning of that day, I’ll just focus on the joy of the moment I heard you screaming. When a baby is born and starts screaming, well, that’s a good thing. And scream you did. You weren’t even four whole pounds, but you had a good set of lungs, courtesy of God and the steroid shots they gave me to mature those lungs, just in case.
I appreciate doctors who think of the just in cases. For the 32 weeks that you were “in my tummy”, your dad was nearly replaced as the most important man in my life by my doctor - the doctor who brought you into the world healthy and screaming. The doctor who always found a way to calm me down when I was afraid - even when he was wheeling me into the operating room. The doctor that told me upon our second meeting that I would get pregnant. And so I did. And so our lives changed. Changed big. But changed wonderfully.
I have never, not for one single solitary moment, even when you have gotten on my very last nerve, ever regretted you. Not a bit. Maybe that’s because it took so much work to get you here. Some days we don’t get along so well. Some days you frustrate me. Some days I make you mad! But every day I love you. More and more and more. And Daddy agrees with me on this one - the last five years have been the best of our lives.
Because before you, we were just a couple. But when you came into our lives, we became a family. And that word “family”? That is a powerful word right there. It’s an unbreakable bond. A bond that lasts forever. We will always be a family. Someday you’ll probably get married and have kids of your own, but that doesn’t mean we stop being a family. It just means that our family is bigger. For now, though, it’s just the three of us. And that’s okay. I like it that way.
Thank you, sweet beautiful precious little girl, for making us a family. We would never have made it without you. Here’s to the next 525,600 minutes. Can’t wait to see what they might hold.
Love,
Mama
