For 10_letters
Dearest Nymphadora,
You are asleep here in one of my dresser drawers just a few hours after your birth and I am too excited, too hopeful, too light in heart and spirit to sleep. Your father is currently snoring in the chair beside our bed in spite of my telling him he should come to bed.
You might be wondering what you're doing sleeping in a dresser drawer. I'm not one to tell tales but I'll make an exception in this case. Your father is normally a very handy man to have about. He's fixed all sorts of things around our house since we've been married. He even built the trellis for my rose garden. And yet, for the past seven months he's struggled and fought with assembling your crib. Well, last night while I was in my 8th hour of labor surrounded by midwives your father downstairs lost his struggle and in a fit of pique blew it up with his wand.
When he came in and told me what happened I couldn't help but laugh. Eight hours into a difficult labor, not that I hold you accountable for that my love, and here I was laughing. Every now and again my strength would flag, my temper would flare, and all I had to do was think of your father; your sweet, calm, composed father blowing that crib to smithereens and I would just start laughing all over again.
I wanted you to know that because I want you to know you were born in love and laughter. Your father is everything I ever imagined for a husband. His kindness, his humor, his strength and loyalty make it so very easy to love him and be loved by him. Only in this world a few short hours and already you've stolen both our hearts.
I trust that by the time you have this letter to read you are old enough not to hold what I am about to say against me. I was uncertain about motherhood. The truth of the matter is that I have been terrified of this moment. The moment when I would become a mother. I was terrified that I would look down at my sleeping child and feel...nothing. I feared that because that is what my mother felt for me or my sisters. She had no joy in marriage or motherhood and I have been afraid that in spite of the distance between her and me that somehow it was genetic. That I was fated to be as withdrawn and cold as she is.
This is the first time I'll ever tell you this, but it's doubtful it will be the last. I was wrong. I feel so much love for you that I don't think I can express it in words. You, my tiny, perfect, sweet daughter are more than I ever imagined. I've only known you a matter of hours but I already love you a lifetime's worth.
I know your face as well as my own. Every little frown, the crinkle between your brows, the smooth feel of your cheek against mine, how your lower lip trembles just a iny bit before you let your displeasure be known. Each expression more dear to me than the last.
When your father and I fell in love I was certain that I would never love anyone again. And yet here you are and I know I've just met the other greatest love of my life.
Whatever happens in the future, whether we clash over music, boys, your clothes or hair or any of the silly things mothers and daughters clash over always remember that you are loved beyond my wildest dreams and you were born in love and laughter.
With all my heart,
Your Mother
004. Birth
Word Count: 633