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