11 Years

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How can I remember the night before my first child was born and the day he was born in specific detail, but so many other days have just floated away? 

Becoming a mother changed me. 

Raising a son changed me. 

And those two things feel as of they are written in my bones for eternity. 

I have begun to deepen my understanding of God’s love to a new extent with the birth of a baby boy and watching him grow. 

I have glimpsed at how deep my parents' love toward me is because of my children. 

I see my faith clearer.

Morals stronger. 

Friendship is fiercer. 

Family is more valued. 

In the last eleven years and nine months, I have become a better person. I pray it continues. 

Before having children, birthdays were about the person whose birth it was to celebrate. 

Now, I would say birthdays should be for the mother, the father, the guardian, or the parent, for it is them whose year is shifted each year with the passing of age and seasons. It is not one's birth that leaves the most profound marks but those of the ones you love the deepest. 

I am honored to have the most dynamic partner to do life with, to parent with, and to love my boys alongside. I fear I would not be as good a mother without his gift of fatherhood next to me. 

To Bobby and God, I am eternally grateful for the unspeakable and very evident blessings in my life. 

Happy birthday to me becoming a mommy and to the gift of Joy that is Blaine Robert Clary.