Tag Archives: love

21

Posted on by under Uncategorized

August 27, 2025

Dear Sidney,

I know this letter is now nearly two weeks late.

Honestly, I have put off writing it.

If I sit behind the computer and type these words, it means you are really 21. I know it’s cliched and nearly every middle-aged mom echos the same sentiments, but Sid it really does go too fast.

Your dad and I tried our best to raise you, stumbling along the way. We were so young and unaware. Yet still you have grown into the most exceptional human being.

You are a loyal friend,

a trusted advisor,

a thoughtful sister and daughter.

And on a recent July evening, I stood apart and watched you walk into the rest of your life, adding fiancée to the words that describe you. My heart bursting. Zayne your most perfect match. All the goodness I see in you I see in him as well.

Life does go on.

But you already knew that.

You also know how to hold all the heartache and the joy in one place.

Savor it all. Grief informs.

When faced with the choice, choose to believe in the goodness of people.

And don’t forget to take time to simply get out the map and chase adventure.

I love you forever and a day.

This is not the end of the road but the beginning of the next journey.

You will always be my heart walking outside my body.

Thank you for loving me.

Love,

Your Momma

PS- I would like to say the delay in my letter writing allowed this beauty to come out in time for it to be your 21st song, but I think your Dad had orchestrated it all. It’s as if he wrote these words for you.

Two years and some months

Posted on by under Uncategorized

Dear  #7 and #8,

It’s been over two years now. The spring had me all out of sorts and I missed the opportunity to mark the day you came to us.

So here we stand. We wait for the system to mark what our hearts already know is true.

You are ours.

You have been since the day we saw you.

#7 we held on to you so tight this year. The trauma your little body endured is unimaginable for those of us who have walked an unblemished road.

You are our fighter. To feel that fight I just need to be reminded of those moments as you awoke from the anesthesia in the PICU. The way your body fought for the freedom to be present. Your cries for your Papa and your anger over the tubes, the wires- all the things that tethered you to a place.

You my dear girl are a flurry of activity. You are movement, you are breathe, you are the joy found in jumping, in dancing, in dreaming. Thank you for bringing a piece of heaven to our world. I am consumed with the beauty you bring.

#8 we got to see you bloom this year. You came out from your sister’s shadow and showed us that even through the heartache that light could be found. You made us laugh in the hard days, rejoice in the heartache and dance in the twilight while catching lightening bugs. We saw love in your eyes.

I am continually amazed by your faith. The way your body is a prayer. How you fold your hands at mass, bow your head at night and share without hesitation your love for those in your orbit. Thank you for your Hallelujah.

The struggle in Christian faith is to live in a world where you feel as if the lord has orchestrated everything and nothing at the same time. You my darlings are that paradox.

I pray for the family that brought you into this world and I grieve that they could not keep you in their care.

Here is to the year ahead which will no doubt find us beneath the brightest sun embracing the hard and the good and the different way that only our family knows.

I love you more than the stars in the sky, more than words can say and bigger than this (arms outstretched). You make me believe in the goodness of this world, that slow and steady wins the race and that I would rather spend 5 minutes living in heartache and beauty than a decade of just so so.

I will forever be your biggest cheerleader.

Love to the moon and back.

Momma

PS- More for me then you……

For my former spouse and his soon to be bride

Posted on by under divorce, Parenting

Dear Brock and Allison,

These last two years have been a journey for all of us. But your wedding day is not about what was, it is about what is.

You have found in each other what many dream of and your life will come together before your friends, family and our God in just two short months.

As we lead up to this joyous occasion, but before the frenzied pace of the last weeks before your wedding, I wanted to pause and let you know a few things I have been pondering.

There is great beauty in this moment.

A story of God’s grace.

The chance to start anew.

While I play no role on the day of your wedding, know that the role I play in the coming years of your marriage is one I take very seriously.

As the mother of your girls Brock and of your mentees Allison, I will be here to support you on this journey. I will always hold your marriage in the highest regard.

I will seek to reinforce its place in the lexicon of our family.

I will remind my children of the extra special life they lead to have so many grown ups committed to nurturing them through their formative years and beyond.

Your marriage will have a very important place in their lives.

You see you have the chance to do what thus far has alluded me.

You can show them the stability and strength in a lifelong commitment. How man and women can live in unity with each other.

I may never get to be that example for them. But you two do.

So I will have this unique privilege of watching your married life unfold and lifting it up from afar.

I will pray for you daily and seek God’s guidance as to the best way forward for all of us.

Enjoy this time in your lives.

Know that I believe the best is yet to come for you both.

Sincerely,

H

merton quote