Dear Noah

I’m sorry you were born into a family where you occasionally get over shadowed by the booming personalities. I’m sorry that your parents are spread thin and sometimes you don’t get enough of them.

I am not sorry that you will always have forever friends built into your familial unit. I am not sorry that you are learning the dynamic of socializing (and survival of the fittest for that matter) at a tender age. I am not sorry that your parents are showing you that doing the best you can isn’t always the easiest. Hard work and dedication to your children sometimes requires extra elbow grease, long hours, blood, sweat and tears (mostly Mom’s).

You have been coined the “Bonus Baby,” because everything about you is a bonus to our lives. We had you because we really wanted you, even though we knew it wouldn’t be easy. And having you has been an extreme bonus to the happiness your brother and sister provide us.

This first year has been filled with a lot of adjusting but I feel so strongly that we are starting to take flight. Watching you flourish, grow and change at exponential rates into an individual has only just begun. I’m thrilled to sit front row as you become your own person in this amazing family.

Love,
“Ma-Ma” (as you have just started to refer to me!!!)