Dear Baby.

Dear Baby Girl,

First and foremost I want you to know how much I love you. I want you to know how much I want to hold you, to listen and feel your little heart beating. I can’t wait to meet you, to get to know your personality and have you learn mine too. This world that you will enter is a crazy, beautiful mixture of the people it contains. I can't wait to introduce you to it, for you to witness the leaves change in the fall or for you to visit the vastness of the Pacific Ocean. I look forward to you knowing the diversity of our world, it's kaleidoscope of cultures and races and languages. Know that there is be beauty in the complex and the simple and that the world is filled with them both.

Like most parents, I want to be there for your "firsts." Your first laugh, the first time you say my name, your first steps, and the first time you say yes and no and really mean it. I want to be there when you try all kinds of different foods, particularly my favorites, which include: mac and cheese, green curry, pesto pizza, funfetti cake, and sushi. I hope you love food, because I look forward to fixing you meals and filling your belly and showing you how a kitchen can also be a therapeutic place. I look forward to watching you grow, make new discoveries, and stretch your imagination.

I promise to shelter you, but not so much so that you are unaware or disrespecftul of the people around you. This world has its tragedies. There is greed and there is poverty. There is hate and there is racism, abuse, war, and death. These tragedies often take center stage, and it is my deepest hope that you are kept safe from them to explore your childhood to the fullest. I hope that I will know when to gently and carefully expose you to others' pain, so that you can understand the privilege you have in the world, be inspired by human resiliency, and be motivated to pursue change yourself. I hope that I do not do this too soon or too late so as not to overwhelm you. But also know, there is a lot more to this world than pain; I can't wait to show you its beauty.

I promise to teach you that there is right and there is wrong, and also that life is mysterious and meant to be understood in wild shades of grey. I promise to set an example for sharing emotions and to help you identify and process your own. I promise to help you cultivate your passions, your dreams, and your identity, whatever those might be. I promise to love you, always and even when you're a toddler and a teenager. But more than that, I promise to love your dad, to try my best to show you an example of a healthy relationship. Because if there is one thing that I really want you to know it is that you are valued and you have the right and responsibility to love and be loved with respect. Baby Girl, when the time is right, I will get to meet you. I'll get to see your eyes stare back at mine and I will most likely be overwhelmed by a sense of pride and purpose. I look forward to that moment and the millions that will come after it.

Love,

Your Mama