Two

Happy Second Birthday, my precious girl! 

What a wonderful year it has been!

This year I learned how to truly enjoy you.

I learned how to stop fighting for you to be who I'd imagined you'd be and appreciate who God created you to be. 

This year I learned how to anticipate sights, sounds, smells, and feelings that I will never fully understand. 

I learned that the world will never be the same for you as it is for me. I started to learn how to help you understand something I will never be able to fully understand. 

I learned how to set aside my tiredness, my exasperation, and even my pain to be able to offer you grace when it's the last thing I want to do. 

I learned that God is refining me through you. You make me better, but the getting there is the hardest thing I've ever done. 

You are amazing. You've always been amazing.

You are compassionate. Your heart is just like your daddy's-complete gold. You are tenacious, fierce, and completely impossible. You are perceptive, brilliant, and intuitive. You have an impeccable memory and the strongest sense of order. 

You absolutely baffle me on a daily basis. I've fully learned to expect the unexpected, both good and bad.  

I'm tired. So tired. All of the time. You keep me on my toes. You never let me rest. Most of the time I'm the only solution to what ails you, and that's just plain exhausting. Plus, the reality is that God is using you to teach me so very much that when you do finally fall asleep, my mind whirls with all that I've learned that very day. 

You are strong. You are capable. You are absolutely incredible. 

I am blessed beyond measure to have you. 

Happy Birthday Baby Girl! 

Love always, 

Momma