Monday Morning

this weekend.

this weekend.

i cried every day.   i felt a deep, sharp, and acute aching for the parents who lost their children, whether student or teacher, in the connecticut shooting.  i felt an equal concern for the children who survived, for the things they saw.  i wondered how one particular mother would have survived with some amount of accountability for this tragedy falling on her as people searched for someone to blame.  i wondered what monday morning would be like across the country.

today parents will bundle up their children and walk them to the bus, or drop them off in front of their schools.  today children will ask why there are armed guards in front of the doors.  today parents will have to answer that question.  today we will hug our children a little tighter, teachers will go back to work more family than co-workers, we will mourn, we will remember, we will learn, we will grow, and we will make the impossible choice to shift our focus toward things worth celebrating.  why?  because it's monday morning.  and that's what monday's are for.

today i am grateful to not have to search for my reason to celebrate.  and that, right there, is a start.

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today is the 2nd birthday of sweet baby abi, daughter to my friends sean and mary susan and favorite miracle baby to all.  this fall she made the long journey home from ghana, the place of her birth, to tennessee.  here she will receive daily the gift of opportunity.  the gift of a childhood.  the gift of waking up every morning just to be cuddled all day. 

 in two years she has overcome more adversity than most experience in a lifetime.  

to me, that sounds like twice the reason the celebrate.  

sweet abiella,

happiest of birthday's, little one.  i hope you enjoy your first party.  i hope you get to watch your favorite beyonce dvd and that your mama and daddy don't put you down all day.  thank you for always being a reason to celebrate.  

i love you,

auntie m