Giving birth is such an epic event. For me, I felt more love in my heart than I ever experienced in my whole life. I wanted to make sure my daughter knew that, so I wrote her a letter when she was an infant and put it in her baby book. She’s twelve now. I catch her reading it sometimes…

September 29, 2001

Dear Maggie,

April 23, 2001 was the best day of my life. It was the day “Maggie Doodle” was born. As soon as you arrived, you were bright eyed and curious. You looked all around and finally found your Mommy and Daddy. You can’t imagine the love we felt for you right away. We didn’t know we had so much love to give! You hardly cried. You were so pleasant from the moment you were born. You let everyone hold you and welcome you to the world.

Our favorite time of day is when you wake up. You’re such a sweet baby. You never cry when you wake up. You look around and talk to yourself. We come to your crib. We like to play a game. We don’t say anything and wait for you to notice that we’re there. When you do, you give us the biggest and brightest smile anyone could ask for. It melts our hearts every single time! We take you into our room and play with you. You’re very nosey. You always like to know what’s going on. When the TV is on, you watch it as if you know what the actors are saying. We can tell already that you’re very smart and will probably be a great success at whatever you choose to do. We talk about whether you’ll be an artist or a musician. We think you’ll definitely be creative, because it’s in your genes. Daddy wants to buy you a piano so you can learn how to play. He has drums and a guitar and I’m sure he will teach you too! I get so excited when I think of you learning new things and showing us what you can do. I know you’ll be so good at anything you try.

My favorite thing to do with you right now is make you laugh. Your Daddy and I are always trying to get you to giggle. Daddy likes me to video you whenever you start to laugh. I’ll never forget the first time you laughed. It was on the fourth of July. You were sleeping on my chest and you must have been having a silly dream, because you laughed out loud. It surprised me! I spent the next two weeks trying to get you to laugh when you were awake. I get so happy when you laugh for me. Promise me you’ll always laugh. It’s the best medicine and it’s contagious. Your Mimi used to tell me, “Smile and the World will smile with you!” I took her advice. I like to smile a lot. And ever since you came into my life, I smile all the time!

Live a wonderful life, Maggie. Make it wonderful. My advice to you…

I love you, Maggie Claire, with every ounce of my heart and soul. It is so important to me that you know that. Your Daddy and I love each other very much and we are so blessed that God sent us such a sweet, precious angel to know and love. I thank Him for you every day. My prayer to Him is that you will live a long, happy, healthy life.

Love,

Mommy xo