My People - My Day...

My mama sent me a text message at 5:53 am on March 4th.

"Sweet Amber, I wanted to be the very first person to wish you Happy Birthday today!  I love you so much and I'm so lucky to have you for a daughter.  You were born 35 years ago at 11:35 pm on the best Tuesday of my life."

And I teared up.

Because now that I'm a mama I know just how she feels and how much love she has for me and has had for me since even before the day I was born.

And I know just how close to her heart that very moment was, 35 years ago, when she met me for the first time and held me in her arms.  

It's the craziest thing to come full circle & experience my own little families' birth days just as she did with mine.  And when people say, "I saw you and I knew you were going to be one of our greatest adventures" or "The first time I held you it felt like we had known you forever and yet we'd just met you" or "In that moment the greatest joy of my heart was right in my arms."

I just get it.

Those words conjure up all those sentiments I had every time I was in a delivery room with RyGar and we welcomed new life into our life.  

So birthdays - though cliche and "just another day" are sooo much more than that.  Birthdays are special.  And to hear my little men wake up and say things like, "Mom it's your birthday today!" as the realization dawns on them and their faces break out into shy, sleepy grins, and they wrap their warm little hands around my neck and their enthusiasm is barely contained as if its their own magical day...

Man - it's a high no drug on this earth can come close to.

My 34th year was a great year for recognizing how much life has to offer.  When you see things through the lens of happy-go-lucky little dudes with your best friend, your perspective tends to change for the better.  Growing older, for me, has taught me more & more that happy moments, mundane moments & hard moments, will always be there - but I have the ability to weave them together as I'd like... to draw lessons from all my moments and create a beautiful life with the boys I love.

And that's pretty powerful.  Do I have it all figured out?  Nah.  I'm still learning.  I can't really check anything off as "a lesson learned" because I'm always still learning.  And in that sense... the sense that I have so much to figure out... this gal is a young thang!

Thank you for all the love and birthday wishes!