For me, meeting my daughter was a backward love story of sorts. By the time we met, I had already been in love with her. Before seeing her, I felt her moving inside me. She was the one I sang to at the top of my lungs during car rides to prenatal appointments. For nine months, her veins were filled with the same substance mine were. She was the one I called little bean and peanut. Every morning I looked forward to throwing the covers off my belly and feeling her wiggle away from the light. Yes, by the time I met her, I knew her. I knew her as much as one could know someone who abided inside them. So to meet her face-to-face was exhilarating, yet familiar. “Ah, there you are.”
As most babies do, she came into the world screaming. So fierce! She was placed on my chest while still wailing, unable to wiggle away from the light this time. To be able to finally hold the one who lived in you is a “beyond” moment.
Next to the wonder of meeting her for the first time, came the wonder of watching her dad meet her. Breathtaking. When he said, “Hello,” her wailing stopped, and she was stilled, focused on his warm, deep voice. I was a happy bystander for their first encounter. What a lovely beginning to their story. Then, when she grabbed his hands while in the warmer, she made him hers for keeps. Love them.
Welcome to our family, little miss Marin Elizabeth. You have been loved. You will be loved.
“For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” 1 Cor. 13:12
