50% + 50% = 100%

Dear Miles ~ many many years ago these two teenagers fell in love. It was a long and arduous path but we persevered past heartbreak and through countless long distance phone calls...

... and look what we got! These days I tell you that you are in fact 50% Mommy & 50% Daddy, but you are definitely 100% YOU! We just adore getting to know you and we recognize that you are definitely your own being; we are just here to be your guides. I was reminded of this on Sunday when I went for a walk with my almost sister-in-law (your almost aunt) Sarah. I loaned her The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran because excerpts from it were read at our wedding. Directly after the writing On Marriage is the philosophy On Children. As I read it again I was reminded of the fact that although you were born of our love for each other, only you know who you will become. Just remember that we will always be here for you, our home will always be your home too, and as Nona Linda says, "Never forget where we hide the key."

On Children
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And thought they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves the bow that is stable.