There are no words to describe their love for you, babe. There are no books that could contain it, no artist that could paint it, no song that could capture it. They loved you since the moment they knew about you and even in the years and moments before. They've loved you in every movement, every kick, every heartbeat.

There is an innocence when you come face-to-face with a baby. You can see it like a song singing through their eyes. It is almost like a purity weaved through every single breath and every flutter of the eyelashes. It is almost like when we meet these little lives that become one of the greatest gifts we ever know, they come out as this brilliant and explosive light.

True beauty is not found in the moments that are posed and forced. True and exhilarating beauty is found in the unbridled and raw moments. You know the ones; the laughter that comes from deep within, the look on your four-year-old as she asks you a question, the love found in your husband’s eyes.

There is this look on the face of a newborn as they sleep where it is almost as if they have surrendered to complete peace. It is almost like in that very moment you wonder if God might be hugging them. And sometimes even as we get older and as we age, as we sleep, we still hold that exact same expression.

Baby, may you dream the kind of dreams that make your heart feel completely alive. May you dream not what they told you to dream and not what you feel like you should, but dream about that thing that your soul just cannot seem to shake. There will be so many people demanding you to be so many things, but baby you are so powerful and incredible just as you are.

"Your eyes tell me a story and I hope mine tell you one back too. Baby, sometimes I look at your eyes and simply know exactly what you need whereas other times, it is almost as if I can hear you asking me a question. There are moments when I look inside your eyes and I wish I could hear what you're thinking about because I know it must be great. Then sometimes there are others where your gaze...

Time is a mystery. In one glance, you’re wanting to rush the seconds that make up a minute, so that you’ll get to the moment you’ve been waiting for, and in the next, you’re holding the hand of your son, wondering how he grew up so fast.

Hope. It reminds us that even in the midst of darkness, there is still a light. With all that's going wrong in the world, there are still many things right. And that expecting and anticipating beauty is not outrageous but it is actually brilliant. It gives us fire for the days to come. And it tells us that the things that God has planned are actually better than we could imagine and even dream up.

"There are these moments that when you’re sleeping, I sit back and watch you breathe. I watch your chest rise and fall ever so subtly as your lungs fill with breath and then release. I watch as your eyelids almost seem to flutter like rest is chasing you down and how you squirm just so as if you’re just getting comfortable. I watch you move and imagine that maybe you’re dreaming about slaying dragons or running fast or maybe you’re just dreaming of colours, of love, of us."

The day my life changed forever was the day I found out I was about to bring you into this world. I remember how my heart beat fast in my chest in anticipation. I remember images of your ultrasounds flashing in my mind and how I had pictured your little feet every time I felt you kick. I remember that as we got ready how there was this rushing, this flurry, this excitement mixed with unpreparedness.

There is something that happens the first time you hold your sweet baby in your arms. You’re never the same. You’re changed. Suddenly, your life shifts from being mostly about you to all about the little life that you’re now holding. And in the midst of such a radical change, you’re in love. You are completely in love. You would trade in the sleeping in and all those beautiful inconveniences, for the pure delight of knowing and loving this little one.

The other day, I held the sweetest newborn in my arms. It made me think. It is a beautiful and brave season to be newly born. You’ve entered the world and everything, literally everything, is brand new. Your entire life story is unwritten. It is completely for the seizing and the revealing; who you’ll be, what you’ll do, where you’ll go is undecided. It is to be written. The possibility of that is beautiful.