“A daughter is one of the most beautiful gifts this world has to give.”
— Laurel Atherton
The gift of a lifetime finds us doubly blessed. Our daughter has welcomed a daughter. The beautiful baby girl took her sweet time arriving in the world, and gave us all some sleepless nights and days filled with worries because of it.
But, the moment we laid eyes on this sweet baby girl, all was made perfect. She looks so much like her mama did as a newborn, complete with lots of jet black hair and a blessed calmness that makes us want to rock her a bit longer.
Looking ahead
Looking in her sweet baby blue eyes is a gift of seeing the past while looking toward the future. Landry Diane shares my middle name, a gesture of sweetness that touches me deeply.
I was named for my Dad’s cousin, Diane, who we all adore to this day.
We had no idea what this baby girl’s name would be, the secret kept until arrival time, and this surprise was worth the wait. When we learned, last spring, that our daughter and daughter-in-law were both expecting, we commented that we might end up visiting them both in the hospital at the same time.
Their due dates were just one day apart, right after Christmas. As it happened, the two babies are not only weeks apart, but have a different year as their date of birth. Caroline’s little boy, who just turned 2 on Dec. 1, kept us all busy enjoying those months of waiting, but as the big day came to close, I was impatient to learn the name.
When little Brooks was asked, his answer was always funny.
“Groundhog” seemed to be the one he settled on, but “Froggy” was a close second. My hope from the very beginning was for Caroline to have a lovely little daughter as sweet as her mama.
“Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see,” writes Neil Postman.
Great truth
I think of all the many times we quote my father’s sayings, some passed down from his grandfathers, and realize there is great truth carried there.
Another quote I have long loved was written by Martin Farquhar Tupper: “A babe in the house is a wellspring of pleasure, a messenger of peace and love, a resting place for innocence on earth, a link between angels and mankind.”
Lovely Landry, warm and cozy in my arms, brings all of that and more. As she yawns and stretches and wraps a tiny hand around my finger, I count my bounty of blessings and hold her close to my heart.
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