Happy Birthday Avery!

My dear youngest daughter,

I don't even know where to begin. You are officially a year old today. It does not even seem possible-the year flew by. Throughout the day, I keep flashing back to what I was doing exactly a year ago, beginning with when I was up with you at 5 to feed you, to making you birthday pancakes around 8:00 (for those curious ones, around that time I was probably waiting on the call back from the OB nurse and still debating on whether to even go to the hospital or not!). When I laid you down for your morning nap, I recalled, that by that time, the nurse had advised me to come in, I had called everyone on my "flow chart" and people were coming to watch your sister and brother, someone was coming to get me to take "us" to the hospital, and your dad was planning on meeting us there. And now, I sit here and look at the clock and see that it's 2:34 p.m. You were born exactly nine minutes from now. You came into this world and stole our hearts and continue to do so today.

Honestly, I remember a time when we just had Sydney and Gavin and I felt "good" with our little family of four. (Which is why I sold some maternity clothes and baby things! oops!) However, your dad and I knew we would always wonder about having a third child, we agreed that if we looked down the road (past the sleepless nights and pregnancy and delivery, etc.) that ultimately we wanted a bigger family. BUT, I was nervous to start all over again, nervous about things that could potentially go wrong, worried that I couldn't split my attention and love yet again, plus a few other unimportant, yet valid, logistical questions that I had floating around in my head. We took a leap of faith and I am so, so glad that we did. We are blessed beyond words to call you our very own and you have completed our family in every possible way. I feel completely content when I look at our little family and when I see you interact with your sister and brother (and they with you). It melts my heart every single time. The past year has been busy and crazy, but it has been the very best kind of crazy! And it's only going to get crazier... :) Happy first birthday precious, sweet Avery. We love you more than you will ever know!