A Letter to My Niece

I didn't take the time to sign the guestbook (that I made!) at Mari and Brian's baby shower so here's my entry:

My dear sweet niece,

You have yet to be born but yet you are already the most loved baby that I know... and that's only counting how much I know that I love you. If you add in everyone else who loves you, then you are simply the most loved person in the whole of the entire world. I promise it's true. And it will be true for the rest of your life.

Here, before you have even entered fully into your world, I feel like I must share with you some very important truths about you. These are the things I know, with absolute certainty, about you already:

The first, and probably the single most important thing I need you to know, is that you have been blessed with two of the most incredible people as your parents.

Your mother is my sister. She is my first best friend, my first hero, my first idol, the one that I look up to the most and have strived to be like for my whole life. She will be a better mother to you then you could have ever possibly wished for and you are so lucky to have her. If ever you happen to forget that, I promise that I will always remind you. After I take you out for ice cream and sympathetically listen to you complain about her first, of course. As she has taught me, she will teach you so many wonderful things; Like what it means to be a strong, independent woman, how to be kind to everyone, not to back down when you believe in something, how to cheer the loudest at sporting events, the importance of a handmade card, that good friends are irreplaceable and that some people don't deserve your time, to love animals, how to take charge, and the importance of family. I hope you get her sense of humor, her dimples, her love of shoes and for her sake, I hope you like to sleep in. Those last two things will drive your father crazy!

Brian, your father, is someone that I now count to be one of my best friends and you can bet that he will be the best father ever. As I have gotten to know him more and more over the past few years, I have learned to love him as a brother and trust him completely with my sister. I am now trusting him to raise you, my niece, and in this I do not hesitate. He is an amazing person and I could not have dreamt up a better man to be my sister's husband and your dad. What I love and respect most about him is how much he loves your mother. To see the way that he cares for her is the most beautiful thing and I hope you are always able to cherish that. He too will teach you many things: how to care for others, the importance of good cooking, what it means to have an open home, how to make something with your own two hands, the value of a good pair of gloves, that girls can wear other colors then pink, how to paint a straight line, to keep your heart open, to always put your family first, and how to put up with your in-laws someday. I hope you get his work ethic, his innate cooking ability, his adventurous spirit, and for his sake, I hope you're a morning person like he is.

Together, your parents make an unstoppable team. They will show you what it means to compromise, how to argue without fighting, the value of an apology, how much can be said with a hug, to be a responsible pet owner, to always help your friends out, to get to meeting on time, and to always take care of your sister. Well... you don't have a sister yet, but if someday your do find yourself having to be an older sister, I hope you take after you mom. She was is the absolute best big sister and your dad has proven himself to be an amazing older brother, so you got two very good examples in them.

I love your parents very much and ever since I've found out that they were having a baby, all the love that I have for them has been multiplied exponentially towards you, Sweet Girl. Already this love that I have towards you is more and greater and different then anything I have ever felt. My heart has expanded to hold you tightly there, fiercely protective and wildly in love with this little girl I have yet to see. I am already imaging the slumber parties that we will have where I can feed you pizza, popcorn, and candy, keep you up all night playing games and telling stories. I can't wait to take you on shopping trips to buy you all the things your parents told you that you couldn't have. I imagine you sitting by my side at convention and already I choke up at the thought of you choosing to serve God.

And there are so many things that I want to teach you too! Like how it's okay to wear black and brown together and that boots can be worn with any outfit really but don't ever wear Ugg boots with short skirts in the summer because that's just weird. Or how to take a good photograph and that it's imperative that you take as many photos in and of your life as possible. And that you should always be proud of who you are and never let anyone bully you into thinking you aren't good enough. Because I know, because of who your parents are, because of who your family consists of, I know that you are the most incredible girl and I hope you always have confidence in that.

I could go on. Trust me, in all my sappy PROUD AUNTY-ness, I could ramble on forever. But I won't. I will leave you with a promise, Baby Girl, a very sincere promise that it written on my heart, and it is this: I will always be here for you. I will always love you unconditionally and will do absolutely anything for you. You are my niece, my beloved sister's daughter, the blood of my blood, and heart of my heart. I love you, even now, while you are yet in your mother's womb, I love you absolutely and completely and I always, always will.

I cannot wait to meet you and hold you in my arms. I'll be the third one who does, right after your mom and dad.

Love,
   Aunty Bethy


And a few details from the baby shower! Of course I was too busy to take all the photos that I wanted. Epic fail on my part. :-( But at least the shower was a success!