Happy 4th Birthday, Sophia!

When I look back at blog posts that I have written about birthdays (by far, one of the my most favorite things to celebrate with my kids, by the way), I see how often the idea comes across that Samantha was the one that made me a momma.  Of all the titles that I carry these days -- and there are a lot -- that is the one that I treasure the most ... it's the one that has had the biggest impact on me. 

I am a momma to three beautiful kids. 

But, Samantha is not the only one that changed me and changed my life.

Sophia and Jack each gave me a gift of their own with their entry into my world.  And those gifts are just as special and just as meaningful to me.

Sophia taught me that my heart was capable of expanding and loving another child just as much as my firstborn.  When Steve first placed Sophia in my arms, I fell in love all over again with a little girl that would soon return that love to me.  She was wide-eyed and taking in everything, just as I was absorbing every detail of her that I had tried to picture in my mind for months.

And while our first meeting is forever engraved in my mind (and in pictures), my favorite moment of it all was when Samantha met her sister for the first time.  Oh, the tears.  I enjoyed every second of it.

Samantha was so excited to see her little sister that she came up to visit twice that day -- morning and night.

And then again when we arrived home from the hospital.  I knew then just how lucky I was.

My two girls and me, together, just minutes after I got home from the hospital with Sophia:

As the girls are getting older and understanding the significance of their birthdays now, they are excited to turn another year older.  It is so special for them. 

I look at their birthdays in a different way. 

I am not celebrating the fact that they are getting older ... I am celebrating the moment that they were first placed in my arms and I whispered with tears in my eyes how happy I was to finally meet them.  I am celebrating the day that I spent any spare second memorizing their every feature.  I am celebrating them and the love that they brought into my life.

Happy fourth birthday, Sophia Marie.  You were the best birthday present that I could ever receive.