Dear Stranger Writing Challenge

Earlier this week, I was so touched by Kimberley's Dear Stranger letter that I knew I simply had to try my hand at this challenge. So I did some thinking, reflecting, pre-writing and writing. Maybe mine will make you want to try it, too. If you do, please check back in at the Corner and let me know.

Dear Newborn Miracle,

I'm not sure we'll ever meet, so technically that makes us strangers, but I feel like I know you and your mom because I was given the gift of coming into your life peripherally around the time of your baby shower. It was a dark time of trauma recovery for me, and the email I received from your mom's friend gave me something specific to look forward to that day, helping to bring a little joy back in my broken world. Here's what she wrote:

So now you know how I know that you're special; because your mom is wonderful and she surrounds herself with caring, compassionate people. Your mom has been preparing for you for a very long time just as the Kindies in her class families have been preparing her for you for a very long time.

And guess what? I did know where she could get one of those posters! But she wasn't going to find it online. It'd been hanging on my corner closet door for twelve years (isn't that a God wink?) and nobody (seriously, nobody!) had ever noticed it. But your mom's friend noticed it. Turns out, it was waiting there ... for you. What a gift it was to me when that random reader wrote me back and gave me permission to take that poster off of that obscure door in my office, roll it up, and send it to her ... for you. 

Your mom's friend helped me remember that the gift is always in the giving.

And, as she promised, I now have a picture of that poster with the baby shower decor ... and you ... that adorable belly bump on the right in the picture below. I cropped most of your mom out of the photo to protect her privacy - how soft and loving her hands look - but I am blessed by that same warm, nurturing, beautifully-sincere smile (that you get to see every day) on my original print. 

I wonder which one you're wearing today ...

I can't help but wonder what they named you. I wonder if you're eating and sleeping well. I wonder what you'll discover first, when you'll laugh, when you'll sit up and then crawl and walk. I wonder what you'll be when you grow up. Life is full of wonder. Let it WoW you every day.

So thank you, Milagrito, for allowing me a peek into your world and helping restore some joy in mine. And though you aren't geographically nearby, you will always be near and dear to my ♥  and soul. Take good care of your parents and tell them you love them every day ... just as soon as you're able to talk. Always use those Twelve Gifts of Birth for good, sweet boy, and good will boomerang back a hundredfold!

With gratitude and love,

Barbara