6

Six years ago, around about this time, you entered the world, straight into our arms, our hearts, our home. Six years ago we held the brand new you and looked at you with amazement, wonder, an instant rush of love.

Today, we held you again, all 130cm of you. We are amazed at who you have become. The last year was about learning and perfecting your physical skills: cycling – you now bike for an hour without breaking a sweat, swimming – once scared of water in our eyes you now swim across an olympic sized pool, ballet – this will so not be your calling in life but you still seem to enjoy it so you keep going. It was also a year of learning to read, becoming interested in how the world around you works, countries and languages, stars and body parts. But most of all it has been fascinating and at times hard watching you grow emotionally, asking questions that have difficult answers or no answers at all, learning to cope with situations and actions that don’t always seem fair to you and not being able to “fix” it. You have an amazing heart, you are deeply and genuinely compassionate and any injustice causes you pain. Your teacher said that this is a wonderful characteristic to have, we need people like that, but it will not be always easy on you. And it already isn’t. But we will do everything we can to help you learn how to nurture this amazing gift you have and be happy and carefree for as long as possible.

You are full of love, for Daddy, for mama, but most of all for your “little brother” as you call him. You told me the other day that he was your best friend and my heart just about exploded. He makes you laugh with his silliness, he runs to you when you come home from school, he copies everything you do. He hugs you stronger than he hugs Daddy and me. He also makes you scratch his back and feet, you don’t seem to mind.

You still hate sleeping. We have made peace with that.

You still eat your veggies and leave the meat on your plate. Daddy hasn’t made peace with that.

It has been a joy and privilege being part of your journey this past year, my dear. We look forward to watching where you go next.

Happy Birthday mila moja.