16 Candles

"My son!" What simple, beautiful words!
"My boy!" What a wonderful phrase!
We're counting the months till you come to us-
The months, and the weeks, and the days.
"The new little stranger," some babes are called,
But that's not what you're going to be;
With double my virtues and half of my faults, You can't be a stranger to me!

I was barely a woman when I brought my son into this world. I fell in love with my little boy before I ever laid eyes on him, and when he finally arrived I felt I had come full circle. TonTon was born on August 19, 1992 at 12:11 pm, with the heart monitor attached to me firmly in his tiny grip. He had somehow grabbed a hold of it on his way from the doctor's hands into my arms. He's always been the first of my kids to sense what was on my heart. I guess even at birth he was trying to show me that. 16 years ago I was preparing to raise a boy, worrying about his first tooth, his first baby steps. In two years I will have to let him go, just a little bit at a time. How the years have passed. The excerpt above is by Captain Cyril Morton Throne, a poem I put in his baby book while I waited for his birth.

Happy 16th birthday son. I am so blessed by you and so proud of the young man you've become.


I love you mi'ijo,

Mommy