Sophia Smiles

I can tell you the first time that Sophia smiled at Jacq and I. It was two weeks ago when we were in Miami for some quick R&R. It wasn’t just one of those looks babies give when they have a little gas. It was her first full faced smile. Mouth, cheeks, eyes, forehead. It was quick. It melted our hearts.

I have quickly discovered that the milestone moments of parenthood–your child staring at you for the first time, their first smile, etc.–are life changing moments, made all the more powerful and lovely by our crazy situation.

We wait for these moments, knowing that they will come. We anticipate them impatiently. And when they come they are permanently etched in our hearts and minds, never to be forgotten and always cherished. They are moments taken out of time, especially when my time has been spent these last 5 months recovering from round after round of chemotherapy. They are for me, not simply moments to help me get through the nausea, the exhaustion, and the discomfort, but they are beacons of the future, knowing that I should get to enjoy a lifetime of these milestones, from a simple smile, to a first step, to her first words and onward.