Hello, Lia.
It’s unbelievable to me that today, I am saying to you, “Happy 8th”. I don’t even notice the years. Wasn’t it just yesterday that you were swaddled in that newborn jumpsuit? That you walked your first steps? Sped off on your bike on your own? Wasn’t it just yesterday that I let go of another year?
Today, I do so again. I bid a girl in second grade goodbye and welcome someone who will be in third grade. Each year I let go, knowing the clock doesn’t tarry or rewind. Knowing I will never meet that same person again in my life. We simply march forward, meeting many different and constantly growing persons that we call our daughter.
How bittersweet, exciting, poignant, life-changing, and humbling experience that is all at once.
Lia, I don’t think there is anything else I could tell you now that I haven’t said in my other letters to you. But the thing I want you to remember the most is that no matter how many persons you become in your lifetime, no matter how the tide shifts and changes you, one thing remains constant: I will forever be your Mama, and you my daughter. I will always love the many new yous that are born each year. And all those yous will always have warm arms to come home to, no matter how cold and bleak the earth turns.
Here now and always,
Mama
