Hello Emmy Sue! Goodbye Heart!

Psalm 127:3 “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.”

Hello Mary Lou, goodbye heart.

Sweet Mary Lou, I’m so in love with you

I knew Mary Lou we’d never part

So hello Mary Lou, goodbye heart. 

                        ©1961, Gene Pitney

Dear Emily:

My sweet daughter, Emily, on her wedding day! Goodbye Heart!

This has been quite the weekend! Saturday you got married and we all worked hard to make it a special day. Now that the dust has settled, I sit collecting my thoughts and rehearsing everything that’s happened over the past week, months, and years. Time just seems to fly. Little boys and girls too quickly grow into men and women who launch out and start homes of their own. I now know that from the day I first stared into my little Emily Suzanne’s eyes the clock started ticking. And the lump in my throat reminds me that when I said the first hello to that little seven-pound strawberry blonde I also said goodbye to my heart.

A mother’s love is fierce. It perseveres night after night when a newborn awakes to be fed. It runs after a two-year-old who wants to explore and touch everything in sight. This love smiles and waves goodbye on the first day of Kindergarten while masking tears trickling down cheeks. It stays up late helping with homework and asking review questions for the big test. It suffers through middle school drama and comforts when friends are unkind. This love sits through scores of ball games and late night heart to hearts. It takes a whole SD card of pictures on prom night and stays up editing them for memory’s sake. Every day that passes strengthens a mother’s powerful love, but also requires the inevitable goodbye to piece after piece of the heart.

Now the day has come when you have left our home for good. You and Casey will start to build your own family. It seemed my job was done, but then I suddenly realized it is only a new chapter. You will always be with me in my prayers, in my memories, and in the deepest part of my being. You will always be my daughter and now I have a new son. This is not the end, just a new beginning. I will never let you go because you have stolen my heart forever.

So, hello, Emmy Sue (and now Casey too)! Goodbye heart!

Love,

Mama