Unrepeatable!
Do you ever just take a minute at look at the palm of your hand? Do you realize that absolutely no one else will ever make the exact same handprint that you are looking at? All of the handprint art that children make, are 100% one of a kind! Unrepeatable!
In the adoption process your fingerprints especially become an essential part of your home study. Unless they just can’t retrieve your fingerprints, which is possible!
One of the first things they do when you are born is make handprints and footprints to document who you are, who you belong to, and all the important information about your birth.
I, personally, love hand and footprint children art! There is something that just captures the moment and establishes a solid memory. I also have a deep love for capturing detail. The simple, yet extraordinary. It’s the things that I look back to most when I am remembering Lucy.
Lollipop Toes (I called them lollipops because that’s what they reminded me of. My niece’s were polka-dots. My nephews were pork-n-beans 😊). “Handle bar” feet (what my mom likes to call her long skinny feet. Because they fit perfectly in your hands.) Long soft fingers. Dimples for her knuckles. Newborn wrinkles and crinkles. Button nose. Long beautiful eyelashes. Big Brown Eyes. Long legs. Curly q hair. Eyebrows full of expressions. Her mighty thighs. Sweet lips.
I could go for days…
The amount of pictures and videos that we captured of Lucy is absolutely God! The fact that my parents were able to come to the hospital while she was in the NICU. And then having us all under one roof, meant lots of cameras and phones, which resulted in a lot of good moments captured. And these are what I look at daily, and when the missing gets real extremely hard, I watch the videos on repeat.
I share this today because I want to encourage you to not miss it! Whether your child is a newborn or a teen or grown, cultivate the moments. Collect the moments and hold them close! Because when they become a memory, a photo, a video, then you will truly know how incredibly irreplaceable and valuable they are!
A Poem that we have hanging in our home, sums it all up so well:
The Last Time
From the moment you hold your baby in your arms you will never be the same
You might long for the person you were before
When you had freedom and time
And nothing in particular to worry about
You will know tiredness like you never knew it before
Days will run into days that are exactly the same
Full of feedings and burping
Nappy changes and crying
Whining and fighting
Naps or a lack of naps
It might seem like a never-ending cycle
But don’t forget…
There is a last time for everything
There will come a time when you will feed your baby for the very last time
They will fall asleep on you after a long day
And it will be the last time you ever hold your sleeping child
One day you will carry them on your hip then set them down
And never pick them up that way again
You will scrub their hair in the bath for one last time
And from that day on they will want to bathe alone
They will hold your hand to cross the road
Then will never reach for it again
They will creep into your room at midnight for cuddles
And it will be the last night you ever wake to this
One afternoon you will sing “the wheels on the bus” and do all the actions
Then never sing them that song again
They will kiss you goodbye at the school gate
The next day they will ask to walk to the gate alone
You will read a final bedtime story and wipe your last dirty face
They will run to you with arms raised for the very last time.
The thing is, you won’t even know it’s the last time
Until there are no more times. And even then, it will take you a while to realize.
So while you are living in these times, remember there are only so many of them and when they are gone, you will yearn for just one more day of them.
For one last time.
-AUTHOR UNKNOWN
Life Book of the Week: Busy Toes, by Fred Willingham and C.W. Bowie
