On my daughter’s first birthday I wanted to write a letter to her, but I just couldn’t. She had been sick with acid reflux and a milk allergy for the first year and she was almost always uncomfortable. I felt like I didn’t yet know her true personality well enough to write that letter.
So rather than chronicle a less than peaceful year or try to fake it, I decided to do something different. At our daughter's birthday party I cut up pieces of paper and gave each of our family and friends a pen.
Our daughter was born just two months after my grandpa had passed away – a man who I loved so dearly and a man who I felt had so much wisdom from growing up in an era so different than my own. I decided that I wanted our child to have a little piece of wisdom from the friends and family who could offer that.
I loved reading through those pieces of paper at the end of the night. Each had a unique sentiment or a heartfelt piece of advice that was based on years of experience, love, heartache and well, wisdom. I remember smiling as I tucked those papers away carefully into the little envelope in her baby album.
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