8 short years ago

I would have not believed it had anyone told us that we'd be doubly blessed with two amazing little dollies of our very own. If you had told me 9 years ago that I would be doing TWO loads of pink/purple clothes every week I would have guffawed.


But we are, and I do.
Eight years ago, on January 16th, 2001, life as we knew it as an fairly ordinary, pretty cute, flexible, spontaneous family of 3 came to an end. Our family grew by 4 feet, in exactly one minute, as we welcomed Julia Eve at 9:39am weighing 6lbs 150z, and 19 inches long, and Renna Grace at 9:40am, weighing 4lbs 13oz and 16 inches long. They arrived via planned c-section, with no complications. Within hours of their birth though, we learned there was "something" up with sweet Renna's heart, but that side of the story will get it's own post later. After 4 days in the hospital, we made our way home as a new family of 5. (Renna had two extra days in the NICU so it really was 6 days before we were ALL home together). 


A regimen of feeding schedules, med schedules, diaper tracking - how often and what "kind" they were- kept us sane. We wrote EVERYTHING down so anyone walking thru our door could easily take over and know who ate when, who was last changed when etc. 
We were SO blessed by oodles of love and care and support from our dear family and extra special friends. Even so, those first couple of years were pretty crazy and chaotic and thinking back, it couldn't/wouldn't have been any other way. It's all a little blurry unfortunately. 
To be honest, I would have to look back in pictures, and read through months and months of archived email updates to recall most of the first few months (years?) of your precious lives. I regret not having more (any?) video of the first couple years of your life and for that I am sorry. I struggle to remember your cries and coos and that makes my heart ache. I also know I can't live in regret and I need to try to savor the here and now. I am so blessed by my sweet girls.


RennaRoo - you are our sweet little princess girl. Smart, tenderhearted, always helpful, caring, smiley and flirty, with a mean stubborn streak. You love animals, music, dancing, drawing, expressing yourself in so many ways.


JuliaLoo - you are the strong, "big" sister. You are creative, confident but sensitive all at once, a helper, charming, smart, independent and also have a stubborn streak. We love that you want to be a rockstar when you grow up.


You are best friends, sharing a room (and a bed!) without so much as a blink. I love to watch you play together, sleep all snuggled up together, share secrets and dreams and always being able to create your own kind of fun together.


I am nervous about raising two beautiful girls in today's world. I do know that every day I am your mom is more of a blessing than the last. I can't wait to see what God has in store for you. Even though you are twins, formed from identical DNA, I know that you are each your own amazing individual, and unique (but oh so much the same). My prayers will be always be the same for you both, that you will make good and Godly choices, striving for excellence in all you do, always have a heart filled with compassion, and always know that know matter what, Dad and I are so very proud of you and we love you.


Happy Birthday, my Sweet Girls.


Love you.