Brown flecks and widow's peaks.

Piper Grace,

I’m in awe of the person that you are.

That from two cells joined in love

You were born.

and even though it would take time for your physical birth

{39 weeks and 6 days to be exact}

You existed.

I remember holding you on that first full day of your life,

and staring at your hairline. 

A widows peak? A widows peak!

{from your apologetic Daddy, who has wrestled his own widow’s peak for 30 years}

It traced a wide, faint “M” along your forehead,

and it was, to me, a sign of your individuality.

There you were, this tiny person;

with a widow’s peak of your very own.

{To eventually wrestle into bangs and prom updo's and wedding hair}

Your Creator had given it to you

weeks and weeks before our first day together.

That beautiful first day when air entered your lungs and was forever stolen from mine.

and for the last 8 months of your post-womb life

I have been studying you,

and noticing the things that make you, you. 

{Like the way you announce your entrance into a new room by

lifting your arm, palm up, greeting the world.

Or the way you haaaate laying on your back, 

or how gently stroking your face is often the trigger that will finally free you to close your eyes for rest.}

and everyone sees and admires your blue eyes

{also from your daddy}

but do they see that little fleck of brown in your right eye? 

{the one at '7 o’clock'}

It’s a trace from a relative a few branches higher than you in our family tree, 

and it is evidence that you are not just a vessel of new life,

but of hundreds of people whose entwined stories

have made yours possible.

I am eager to continue studying you, Pip;

to learn who you are.

And to notice the brown flecks and widows peaks 

of your heart, too.

Love, 

Momma