M
y special daughter. I'm sure I'll do my best to fight back the tears....
My hands will be a little more weary as I try to zip your dress.
You'll be the most radiant you've ever been....
And I'll still be wondering what I ever did to deserve you.
I'll hug you so tight...
I'll kiss your cheeks like I did when you were small enough to fit in my arms...
And I'll give you this.
A box.
A box filled with kindness... with appreciation... and with dedication.
My sweet daughter... what you won't know is that when you were born - your Daddy and I began collecting our love notes... and our cards...
What you won't know is that we wrote them for each other.... and with every hope that one day you'll see exactly how marriage is supposed to be.
You'll see us flirting... you'll see our kindness.
And you'll see that we worked every day to be appreciative of each other.
Even when it was hard....
My hope is that you'll start your new life the same way we did.... with not as much love for each other as the day to follow.
And I hope that you'll see that everything we did... the choices we made....
And how we treated each other was as much for our marriage as it was for you.
Because of you.... we were better...
We are better.
I think about Ava getting married ALL of the time... I guess because I'm a wedding photographer... and I'm not trying to wish her life away... in fact, the thought of her getting married makes me very anxious... I know years from now -- I'll be missing these days... So I do my best not to take them for granted... but I just pray we show her how marriage is supposed to be... and I hope that by seeing us show kindness to each other... that she'll grow up to be kind too... and that by seeing us make bad decisions... as I'm sure we will... she'll grow up to make better ones...
Oh the things a parent hopes for.
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