Sweet Pea

[KB.]

December 18th, 2007

Addyson,



I'm writing this a long time before you will be able to read it. I'm writing it while it is fresh on my mind. I hope that when you are finally able to read and understand the things I am going to say that I am still around and I can see you smile. I hope I get to watch you read it.



You will be a year old in a little over three weeks. You are standing by yourself, talking a little bit, and smiling every chance you get. That smile is so contagious. It is such an easy smile. Those I suppose are normal things for a child of your age. The thing is you have managed to do something that no man or woman has ever been able to do before. You make it easy for me to stay in one place. The thought of packing up and leaving has not entered my mind in a long while. That may not seem like much but if you ever get a chance to talk to the people that know me or read some of my stories one day then you may realize just how amazing it is.



For the last five or six weeks you have been what I look forward to. You come by with your Mom on Tuesday nights and you make me smile. Our friend Mandy, your friend Mandy, always brings her camera and she takes the most amazing pictures of you, your mom, and of me. She takes pictures of all of us together and each of us alone. Those pictures mean more to this once restless man than anything I have ever been a part of. Those Tuesday nights mean more to mean than any day has ever meant. You turned an old apartment into a home; for at least one night a week.



You at eleven months old became the great mediator. You brought three people with practically nothing in common very close together. I cook, Mandy takes pictures, your mom shows the rest of us what strength and patience is, and you smile. If only every one could smile as easy as you do and love like you do. That is the beautiful thing about being a child; the things that us "grown up" folks forgot how to do come so easy to you.



I may not be your dad, but I love you like you were mine. I always will. Regardless of the distance that may be between us when you are able to understand this letter I will always think of you and smile. I didn't plan on it. I don't even know how it happened. It might be because you allowed me to do something I have wanted to do for so long. Stay still. Be comfortable. Be content. Be satisfied.



The day I reached out for you and you reached back changed my life more than any other moment in my thirty years. Even if you never do it again I will never forget that moment. I told a friend of mine that will be a father come April that he better get ready. His life will change. I told him that if one day a week with you can change this old fool that I couldn't imagine how great having his own child, every day, will be.



You always remember that your mom loves you. Always remember that she can't wait to see you and be around you. It is a sad thing but not every baby girl or boy is as lucky as you. When you start saying your prayers you make sure to thank God every night for her.



I thank God for the both of you every night. My life is better for you both being in it. Always remember that you calmed a restless heart by just being you. I'll tell you just a few more things before I go to have this letter and some pictures printed for a Christmas present.



I'll tell you the same thing I have told your mom so many times.



Never let anyone tell you that you are anything less than beautiful.



You are a precious blessing for so many people. You will never be just another baby, child, girl, young woman, or woman. You will always be your Mother's daughter. You will always be the smile that kept me in one place. You will always be the tie that binds.



No matter what may happen between now and forever you made me a happy man.



Take care Addy Bug and never forget just how special and beautiful you are.



Kevin

[KB.]

Sorry for the size of the pictures. Really I'm not but I figured I would make an attempt at seeming so.