Monday, January 11, 2010

Not me. (I'm not in there.)

Dear Bethany,

The other day, I was putting away the last of the Christmas decorations when I found this in the cabinet. You had left a message for me when we put it away last year.



Well, yes. I mean, no. It's a photo of our first Christmas as parents.


It's true, Girlie, we were so happy to have a baby for Christmas. Even before there was you.

Over the past year or so, you have been struggling with your position as the youngest--the youngest in our family, and the youngest cousin on both sides. Lucky for you (and for us), Dad and I know what you're talking about. We were the youngest, too. It has been a lot of fun having you ask us questions about when we were young. You seem very comforted by the fact that we had lots of the same feelings as you. We thought it wasn't fair when our siblings stayed up later than we did. We felt like we were being ignored because the things they were doing were more important than we were. But as much as we felt that way, it was never true. No one ever thought our brothers and sisters were more important than we were. In fact, they probably felt the same way during times when we got all the attention. We just didn't notice.

I have a question for you:

Did you ever notice
that after Ben was born
we had another baby?
We did. It was YOU!


And did you notice
that the reason you are the youngest
is because after you were born
we had everything we wanted?


YOU
were just exactly
the little girl
we were waiting for.

If you want more proof, click here, and here, and here.

We hope you will remember something else, though. You are not just important because we adore you, or because you made our family complete, or because we don't know what we would do without you. You are important because you were created in the mind of God, long before we ever imagined you. He carefully, miraculously put you together, just exactly the way He wanted you to be. He smiled just thinking about you. And joy of joys, He trusted us to take care of you. You are important, most of all, because you are His.

We love you!

Mom

9 comments:

  1. She's gonna' love this post Tracy! I wasn't the youngest - I was the middle child - but I had some of those same feelings. I love the way you explained it to her. blessings, marlene

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  2. So sweet, Tracy - it brings tears to my eyes. That will mean so much to Bethany.

    Carla

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  3. Just found you blogsurfing. What a beautiful tribute to your beautiful daughter. I especially love that there is not anyone after her because you have all you ever wanted.

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  4. Well gosh - that sure could have used a tissue warning. What a sweet letter to your girl.

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  5. That's awesome! And totally something that I would do when I was a child.

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  6. Bethany you are one loved little girl. You do have an important role in this family. You made it complete.
    Such sweet post Tracy,
    ♥ Joy

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  7. This is such a heartfelt post and a wonderful thing for your little girl to look back on and read when she gets older. So very sweet!

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  8. A sweet letter to Bethany, my little "hates to see the end of Christmas" buddy! Maybe this was one more way of experiencing sadness when taking down the decorations! Tell her she should ask Danny and Joey how much the youngest child is valued by the parents... they insist that's why they have to toughen him up! And being the only girl is pretty special too.

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  9. sheesh. go and make me cry why don't you.

    she will treasure this.

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A companion on the journey is wonderful...some conversation is even better!