Lights and Letters

This weekend we went to a birthday party for 2 of our friends 1 year olds. They asked that we not bring gifts but rather bring something that represented our family (for a time capsule) or a prayer for each of their children. While I was thinking of what I write I pulled out a book that my mom gave me after Ruby was born (that I had never opened) called "Letters to Baby" by Chaz Corzine. The author asked people to write letters to newborns. Here is one that I really liked by Rich Mullins:

Dear Baby,
This place is a mess, but help yourself to whatever good you find. Everyone wishes we could have gotten everything cleaner and safer for you--though a good many of us are beginning to suspect that much of the mess and danger you face is in those very wishes. So, take with a grain of salt all of those anxieties and ambitions we'll doubtless project onto you. And do us the favor of looking at us with your perfectly blank stare so we can see what we look like to someone whose sight is empowered by purity, not impaired by experience. Your stay here, like all of ours, is so brief. Make the most of your time, and try to put things back at least as nicely as you found them.

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The "look back" photo for today is from when Ruby was under the lights to get rid of jaundice. She was in the lights on and off for the first 2 weeks of her life. We really didn't like her being in there and neither did she. We didn't feel comfortable sleeping while she was in her little "suitcase" so we took turns staying awake. Brian stayed up most of the night reading to Ruby, playing video games, and playing Rich Mullins songs for her. Brian doesn't like to think back to when she was under the lights but I remember the intentional bonding that took place between a loving Daddy and his baby girl.