May 2021
Dear Pearl,
You have a gender (girl!) and you have a name! Pearl Lyn
Brown. Pearl is an especially feminine name – a name that means “being of great
price.” You are a beautiful miracle – your existence is God’s answer to our
prayers. Your parents had a “gender reveal” party so that everyone could find
out at the same time whether to buy pink or blue outfits. Everyone was invited –
everyone was there – everyone was so excited!! We all circled around, and with
cupcakes in hand, we waited for the countdown and signal to bite through the
white frosting into the filling. Pink!! It’s pink!! Some of the family were
surprised. They had expected blue. Not me. From the moment I heard your
heartbeat, I knew. Pink!! And now that we know the basics about you, we are
beginning to wonder about the particulars. Hair color, eye color, length of
fingers and toes, and personality. I’m thinking that your hair and eyes will be
dark like rich coffee, and that your fingers and toes will be slender and
elegant. I picture you as a dainty baby like your daddy was. You may not think
so now, but as a baby, he was like a little bird in my arms.
Your daddy was my
second baby. Talk about a miracle!! When your Uncle Jay was born, we believed
that we had had our only miracle. One doctor had told me that I wouldn’t have
children at all, but we had beaten the odds and the result was your Uncle Jay. I
didn’t dare dream that I would be blessed with another miracle, and then your
daddy was born. Even though his measured weight wasn’t all that different from
his brother’s, his frame seemed slight. Your Uncle Jay was a heavy baby – solid
– carrying him was sort of like carrying around a sack of potatoes on my hip.
Your daddy was different. He was lighter and all arms and legs.
His personality
was also different from the beginning. Jay slept all night at six weeks; your
daddy got his nights and days mixed up soon after we brought him home from the
hospital. I had heard about other babies who had trouble sleeping at night, but
I thought maybe their parents didn’t know what they were doing. Boy! Was I ever
wrong about that! You daddy didn’t sleep at night; in fact, he didn’t really
sleep during the day. “Sleep when the baby sleeps” was the advice, but the
problem was, the “baby” slept only twenty or thirty minutes at a time! Just
about the time I would drift off, the “baby” would begin to cry and the cycle
would begin again.
Another facet of his personality evolved early too. Being his
mother was a new challenge every day because once he decided he wanted something
or wanted to do something, changing his mind was tricky at best. This trait has
paid off for him, both as a youth and as an adult, but when he was a small
child, his determination and stubbornness resulted in one hair pulling
experience after another: climbing on the counter tops or unbuckling his car
seat in a moving car! Yikes! In October, we will finally meet you – a
combination of two amazing people – your mommy and daddy. We will know so much
more about you; however, I already know the most important detail – that you are
our little Pearl –a most loved and valued treasure in our family.
BB
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