Elli,

    From the moment you were born, I started worrying about all the things that lay in store for you...from experiencing rejection and hurt, to the pain of childbirth, to experiencing loss and suffering.  Yet each day, I get to enjoy seeing life through your eyes as you experience everything fresh and anew.  You brighten my days with your smile and warm me inside and out with your laughter.  Your personality is contagious!  

   

   In your short eight months, you have taught me much about life and about myself.  Unfortunately, I'm much more selfish than I ever imagined.  And as I mentioned earlier, such a worrier.  I've also become a sappier individual...who knew I could tear up at the drop of a hat?!?  

  

   When I was a little girl (and especially as a teen), your Grandma would sometimes say or do things that I didn't fully understand, and she would always say, "You'll understand one day, when you have a little girl of your own."  I have a feeling I'll be saying those words to you a lot, too, Elli.  I was reading the other day, and this verse from Galatians took on new meaning at this stage of my life...

     

My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you (4:19)

   I realize that the call of motherhood begins and ends with labor...physical, emotional, and spiritual.   The struggle of wanting to protect your child from every hurt, yet realizing that it's often through pain and hardship that God shapes and molds one into His character...is constant.  Each day of my life, I will have to learn to humbly entrust you to your Maker.  

  This verse also makes me thankful for your Grandma, who has faithfully labored with me over the years,  praying for me, listening to me, taking care of me, giving me godly wisdom and correction, only to name a few.  I aspire to follow in her footsteps.

  And because of you, Elli, I now get to feel how she has felt about me for years...a deep, forever kind of love to which nothing compares.  And this is worth far more than all the labor of motherhood...it's simply a taste of God's affection for us.  

  THANKS, MOM, FOR LABORING ON MY BEHALF AND FOR ALWAYS LOVING ME...

i love you & appreciate you!