Who knew I’d choose to have a third baby? Who knew the pregnancy would be lovely and enjoyable? And who knew your birth would be complicated, require equipment that failed, and as a result you’d have HIE, a brain injury and, later on, cerebral palsy and epilepsy?
Who knew you’d have such delightfully, chubby cheeks and a glowing, wide smile?
Who knew your head would always hang to the right side because of torticollis?
Who knew you’d start therapy at a mere two weeks old? I didn’t know you’d have careful, skilled, gentle therapists right from the start. I didn’t know you’d be so cooperative. I didn’t know you would work so hard for me to see tiny steps of progress, things you didn’t, you couldn’t have noticed at all.
Who knew you’d smile every day, belly laugh, and play with other kids with reckless abandon? Who knew your sisters, especially the one closest in age, would love you so tremendously? We couldn’t know you two would become best friends. We couldn’t know you’d teach her, and her you, and that it would happen unconsciously and organically, without persuasion from parents.
Little did you know that doctors said you wouldn’t sit up, crawl, stand, move independently, be able to do 1/10th of all you can do now. You don’t know how many hours I prayed for you to grow strong, or for the strength to help you.
You will never know how many tears of pain, joy, relief, and bitter-sweetness have been shed on your behalf.
Who knew you’d be nearly six when you learned to stand on your own?
Who knew you’d still be in therapy, cracking jokes and having a blast, or sometimes throwing toys and screaming ‘no’?
Who could have known how darn persistent you are (and how I used to call you stubborn, then switched to this more positive term)?
Who knows how long you’ll be in therapy, but I do know you’ll never stop challenging yourself.
Who would have known you’d give my life meaning, in every way and in every day?
Do you know how much I cherish you? Well, now you know.