Beauty in the Blooms

I am more grateful than words could express for each of my children.  We did not send out birth/death announcements for Wyatt.  So it was a great pleasure to create our own announcements for the birth of our first daughter.  I found some wording on the internet about having two children, one who would forever remain a beautiful bud and the other a bloomed flower filling our house with fragrance.  I have since added two more blooms to the announcements and to our household with the birth of our other girls.  Those blooms are unique in so many senses.  They are uniquely colored, their petals have different textures and variations.  Their scents are unique to each, some stronger, sweeter, longer lasting.  One of the greatest gifts as a parent is to be able to look at your children, your flesh and blood, and see bits of yourself and your partner in your child.  To see a melding of your qualities, both physical and emotional.  To see how those qualities sometimes bounce around off of each other wildly and sometimes embrace as the best of friends.  When you have experienced the loss of a child, those thoughts are often underscored by musings of what the missing child would have been like.  They provide opportunities for the imagination to run wild and expound on what that child would be like were he or she here today.  Often, that can bring a smile to your face as you watch your living children do ballerina twirls across the living room floor.