three hundred words a day. july 23.

I have heard it said that God gives us what we need.

I think about that statement... often.  God gives us what we need. 

It wasn't until I was past the thirty week point that I learned that Frankie was going to be a girl.  I love my boy with all my heart, but something deep down was hoping, hoping for a girl and when I heard the news, the tears I cried were of joy.

I spent hours dreaming up things we would do together, me and my sweet little girl.  My mind awhirl imagining tea parties and ballet recitals and anything, everything sweet.  I decorated her room in pink.  With roses.  I bought dress after dress after dress and the frilliest bows I could find for her hair.  She would never talk back.  She'd love only me.

God gives us what we need. 

God must have laughed a bit when he heard my wants because in His infinite wisdom, he gave me, instead, exactly what I needed. 

A baby girl who opened her mouth to be heard on the day she was born and has refused to close it since - in song, in laughter, in love.  A baby girl who refused to wear dresses or bows, or anything pink for that matter.   A baby girl who speaks her thoughts, who knows what she wants, who is not afraid to work.

A baby girl who is self-confident and strong beyond measure.  Who is kindness to her core.  Who remains so unaware of the gifts she possesses, of the genuine beauty that lies within her, that it is often breathtaking to behold.

God gave me Frankie.

To learn from.  To listen to.  To have and to hold when she lets me.  To laugh with.  To love, with all my heart up to the sky and back again, to infinity and beyond. 

God gave me her, and today, on the day I celebrate her birth, I realize just how much she is exactly what I needed.