Now Three

You just turned three, and I am confounded with mixed emotions. I want you to grow to become the best person you can, all the while keep you small enough to sit on my lap, never ashamed to give me a kiss in public. I watch you spin in your dress. Your face is covered with the crumbs from lunch. You often have syrup in your curly locks from leaning in too close to your plate and dipping them in your pancakes. You have no idea that your pink painted nails have dirt underneath that shows through the chips. As long as there is music--you dance, as long as you have a dress on--you spin. Sadie, though you are so beautiful, nothing else about how you look matters: from the inside then out, you are a princess, and I am so glad you know it.

You love your father and he is your very best friend. Every morning, without fail, you come into our room looking for him, and are broken hearted if he is gone before you woke. Countless times during the day I hear, "I need my daddy." You chatter about him while he is gone, and often make calls to him on the calculator or TV remote. When he comes home at night, all you want is to be next to him, to hug him and tell him about your day.

For a little girl, the love and connection with a mother cannot be replicated, or reproduced. It is so necessary to feel a mother's touch, hear her familiar voice, and embrace the comfort and peace that only a mother can bring. When you need me to teach and support, to hold your hand, to pick you up, I will be there. When you need me to cheer you on, or to cry with you, I will be there.

A little girl needs her mother, but as you grow into a bigger girl, some day soon a teenager, and eventually a woman, it is becoming so clear to me how more important and perhaps greater in impact the love of a good father can be. Through him you will learn how you deserve to be treated, and you learn of you infinite worth--because you are so precious to him. You dance with him, he holds you tight. You walk out with shoes on the wrong feet, wild hair, sticky fingers, and even so, your sight and hugs are welcomed and beautiful to your father. He loves you as only a father can.

Daughter, there may be days that you can't hear the music, and as you grow, my heart breaks to think of your perfect innocence being chipped away--an unavoidable result of your choice to come to earth. My greatest hope, is that you maintain your knowledge of who you are. Hold fast to the love your father gives you, and what he teaches you. No matter what anyone else tells you, no matter how much others try to break your testimony or your faith, you are our princess, and a child of royal birth. When you can't hear the music--dance, when you have no dress--spin. From the inside then out, you are a princess, know it--always live it.