Today myPie turns 21. Wow, 21!

I remember the day you were born - tugged and pullled out of the sanctuary that was my womb. I remember how blue you were; your APGAR Scale rating (both numbers), and how afraid I was that your lungs could’ve been damaged when you were born. How sick I was - so sick that I didn’t get to be with you for the first 12 hours after you were born. And Daddy being so very far away. The video tape that Joanne Fisher made and we sent to Saudi; the reaction of your Father and the men who viewed it with him in the tents. 

You were so perfect, so tiny, so beautiful. You still are. You always ALWAYS will be. You have been a sheer delight, a sparkle in my eye and a gallop in my step. I smile brightly when I think of you and I shed tears of joy when I think about who you are becoming. 

I will cherish ALL of the memories I have deep within me - there is an entire closet that is myPie’s childhood memories … and you know what? “What,” you say. Every once in a while, like right at this moment, I open that closet door and sit with those memories and I smile and I cry and I laugh, sometimes hysterically to myself.

YOU are my pride and my joy and NOTHING compares to you. There is a love in my heart that is only yours and yours alone.

[aside: And your sister? Well she has her own closet that I am still filling with her childhood memories. She too is my pride and joy and yes NOTHING compares to her either. You will understand someday, when you have children of your own. Each of you holds a place in my heart, a piece of my soul - the same, yet different … different, yet the same. end aside]

On this, your 21st Birthday (wow!), I just wanted you to know how extremely proud I am, how wonderfully filled with joy I am, and yes, a little sad. You aren’t my “little” boy any longer. Today you are a “man” - the man that I raised you to become. I am so very Very VERY filled with love.

Happy 21st Birthday to myPie!