Dearest Little One

Dearest Little One,

This Saturday marks twenty weeks of pregnancy. Twenty weeks of you growing inside me, filling me with awe and wonder. Twenty weeks of waiting, of praying and planning. Twenty weeks of watching for the tiny signs of your growth. Twenty weeks will be the half-way point, so after Saturday we'll have twenty more weeks. Twenty more weeks of feeling you wiggle and swish and somersault in my tummy. Twenty more weeks to plan and dream and scheme. Twenty more weeks to get everything ready.

And tomorrow, just a few days shy of twenty weeks, we will find out if you are a Dear Little Boy or a Dear Little Girl. I cannot wait to know. I cannot wait to know what and (even more importantly) who you are. I cannot wait to know just every little thing about you.

I've been thinking very much lately about your nursery, about the place where you will rest and dream and learn and grow. About the space in our home that we will set aside as your very own. I've been waiting to make official plans, because your room might need to look a little different depending on whether you are a boy or a girl. But I realized this morning how very many of the things I want for your space will be the same either way. Whether you are a Dear Little Boy or a Dear Little Girl, there are so many things I already know I want for you and for your room.

For instance, I know how I want your room to feel: peaceful and still, but with the possibility of adventure and wildness tucked just somewhere around the edges waiting to spring forth. I imagine sitting in a wide, grassy meadow in the middle of a rich, deep forest. It's soft and still and smooth and quiet in the center of the meadow, but the forest all around is filled with bright colors and inky-dark shadows and around every corner and under every stone there are things to be explored and adventures to be discovered. There are fantastic beasts and brilliant creatures going about their busy lives just out of sight and everywhere there is the potential to meet a new friend or to write a new story. That is how I want your room to feel.

I also know what I want to fill your room with. I want to fill your room with many, many good things. I want to fill your room with love, first of all. The kind of love that makes you feel safe and sound but also brave and daring. Love that can be a life preserve in tough times and a sweet song when you're sad and also a trampoline that vaults you into a crazy dance of joy. Love that will fill you up and overflow and inspire you to always, always extend the same love to those around you. I want your room to be full of love.

I want to fill your room with all kinds of songs. Silly, jiggery, nonsense songs full of funny words and plonking rhythms. Old hymns with sweet, familiar melodies and life-giving words. Folksy songs with lots of guitar picking and a heartwarming lyric or two. Unaccompanied voices raised high as we make music of our own. Because we're going to sing together, you and I. And maybe bang on a few pots and pans or some piano keys. We might even do our own guitar strumming. Music moves our souls and lets us share feelings out loud and it can suck the sadness right out of us or just plain fill us up with joy. And I want your room to be full of songs.

Lastly, I want to fill your room with stories. So many stories, all kinds of stories. But especially fairy-tales. Fairy-tales are often neglected beyond childhood. Grown-ups don't tend to take them seriously. But I'm going to tell you a little secret. Fairy-tales are the most important kind of story there is. And I want you to start learning, from very early on, that the three most important rules of fairy-tales are also the three most important rules of life.

• Rule #1: Things are not always what they seem. The tired old woman may just be a princess in disguise. The frog can turn into a prince with just the right kiss. Death is never the end of the story. And goodness and mercy and even the tiniest of people can always have the power to save the day. Hope is never lost. You must always look harder, look deeper, to see the truth behind the appearance of things. 
• Rule #2: Dragons are real. There are real dangers in this world and you will take real risks and experience real loss. There are forces of darkness as well as forces of good. Some things hurt and some things make us sad and some things scare us. And that's okay. Because ultimately we live in a good world that was created by a good God and we are in his care, always. And that brings me to....
• Rule #3: Good always wins. That doesn't mean there won't be a great battle, but in the end victory always belongs to the noble and true. That's because our good God came Himself into this fallen world to show us what love and goodness really look like in earthly form. And in His final victory over death, He graced all of us with the gift of abundant and eternal life. As long as we hold fast to Him and to His promises He will make everything right in the end. 

Oh, I want your room and your whole precious life to be just chock-full of stories! And it won't be very long now before you're going to start making stories of your own. This is a wonderful, beautiful, messy, exhilarating life Dear Little One. And it's right here waiting for you. I can't wait to welcome you into it.

Love you bunches and bunches,

Mommie