Dear Mabel (a birthday letter.)

Dear Mabel,

Today is your very special third birthday!  You're such a big girl!

 Celebrating your birthday this year is so incredibly sweet for me.  There are so many reasons to celebrate but the most important reason is that this year I believe we were truly made aware of what it is to live with great abandon.  Your life is a perfect example of how to do just that.

 You are loved so big, Mabel!

So many people wrap you up in their arms and their prayers and they love you in ways that take my breath away.  You have shown us all how to love with no restrictions and with open hearts. 

 I want you to know that I celebrate you every day but today is incredibly special.  Today is the day that I get to remember bringing you into this world.  It is such a gift to be your mommy and I have always known just how unique you are but to think back on this day three years ago is so nostalgic for me.  My heart bursts at the memory of seeing you for the very first time, your tiny head covered in the blackest of hair.  I couldn't believe my eyes and I couldn't believe you were mine.  I was immediately connected to you in a way that was indescribable.   

 Every day since that first day of your life has expanded my heart even more.  Some days I feel like I could explode with love and adoration for you.  I have spent every day since you were born holding you, loving you, rocking you, feeding you and fighting hard for you, little girl.

You're the most amazing gift.

 I have never known beauty the way that I see it now.  I look at you sometimes and feel the breath leave me because your presence is so overtaking.  You are flawless; a perfect array of genetics and God.  He perfected you in the most articulate ways, far too grand for this world. 

  There are so many special things about you and about your day but one of the most is that you share it with your great great granny Carter. 

You also share her middle name, Audrine.  This year granny will be 96 years old. 

 This year you have lost many skills but while I have noticed your slight decline in abilities I have noticed your sister and brother pick up the slack.  They adore you and they take care of you and those qualities are so important.  I am so proud of them for the way that they care about you and I am so in awe of how you respond and love them in return.

 There is a gentleness about you, Mabel, that I admire and long for in my own self.  As your mommy you are teaching me every day how to be quiet, take time to love and laugh, and to just 'be' with you.  I am so grateful for the change in character that you have brought about in me and although it has refined me to be a whole new person, it is in the ways that I know were necessary in order to fully appreciate this life with you. 

 In the year to come I hope that we share many days in the sunshine.  I hope that you continue to smile at me and try so very hard to say 'mom.'  I hope that we take long walks and that you bend your legs up to your face every single chance you get.  I hope that you feel my love for you and the strength that I draw from you.  I hope that you feel cared for and nurtured in all the ways that I believe you do. 

 You are the light of our lives, Mabel. 

 Happy Happy Birthday to you, our Mabel Audrine. 

We are all so thankful that you were brought into this world to change it, inspire it, teach it and shine bright in it.   

I love you with all of my heart. 

To the moon and back.

Forever from today. 

 

Love, Mommy.