Oh baby, baby it's a wild world...

When you reach out your little hand to hold on to mine to steady yourself, I am washed over with worry that maybe one day you'll trust a hand you shouldn't. When you grin toothily and have an outburst of screechy giggles, I am hopeful that you will always always find joy in things as simple as a game a peek-a-boo. When you toddle over to me and back yourself into my lap with one of your favorite books, I wish I could freeze time because I'm sure I have never felt more proud in my entire life. When you run your little fingers over something shiny and say "oooo", I believe you will be able to find beauty in everything. When you point to an object and say, "this?", and make a sound that resembles the vowels I just said, I pray that you will use will use intelligence to help people one day. When I think about our whacky family, I know you will never go without love. When I see you becoming more independent every day, hold you even when you're squirming, hug you maybe a little too tightly for your liking, kiss you on your sweet little head, tickle you, pick you up after you've had a hard fall, read you a book you've already been read dozens of times, watch you figure things out for yourself, and sing you silly songs I haven't thought about in years, I wonder how parents get any sleep at night, worrying about their children. I pray you never have to make a fist, feel unaccepted, go through anything alone, be heartbroken, or have something important taken away from you. I wish you could know right now, that I'd do all those things for you if I could, just so you would never have to hurt. Yes, you were born into an amazing family, but WE are indeed the lucky ones. I wonder sometimes what career aspirations you'll have. I wonder if you will be artistic and musical or if you're calling is something completely different. I have no doubt that you will be a loving, beautiful, talented child. I can't quite think it terms of you as a woman yet, because time is already going much too quickly for my liking.

For now, I'll sleep knowing that I'll see you in the morning and have to travel back to my temporary home two hours away from you. Sometimes, what keeps me going is knowing I'll see my family in the near future.