Tender Words

This is a letter from my daughter and my son-in-law to their daughter. As I read it I wanted to share it with you hoping not to interfere with their intimacy but to fill your hearts with inspiration to somehow demonstrate your appreciation to those you love.


Hi Brooke,

We want to take this opportunity to write to you today, I know that we have done this every year and we always let you know how we feel. But now that you are 14, we can speak more maturely and openly to you.

The first thing new parents do when they find out they are pregnant, is to pray for a healthy child. They have hopes of a healthy, beautiful child that is smart and wonderful and has a ton of charisma. The second thing that they do is pray that they will be able to mold this perfect child into a healthy, compassionate, loyal, intelligent, loving person who makes good decisions and finds the challenges of life to feel natural and simple.

We want all things possible for our children and want them to be all that we were not and have all things we didn’t.

It seems as if you were put into our arms yesterday. Every single day that we get to call you our own, we are grateful.

We are so proud of the way you have grown emotionally and mentally. We are proud of your accomplishments, especially those in which you need to work so hard to get. We are proud of how loving and compassionate you are with your family and friends.

You are headed toward high school with new and more mature situations, and we will be here always to guide you and to let you make decisions for yourself, but catch you if you fall. We know that for you, falling will be very rare, but we want you to know that as you get older, you will need to face more intense and life changing events. And as we were there for your first steps of life, we will be there to help guide you in every step of life to come.

Brooke, we love you so very much and are so proud of the young woman that you are becoming. We could not ask for anything more.

Just do your best every single day. Remember that for all your hard work and sacrifices, there are rewards and they are great. Remember to love fully and give your heart freely and you will be golden. Life is much more than schools, and work and money. The best advise to give you, is to remember to always take care of your business, remember that what is in your heart will eventually run past your lips. Remember to always count your blessings when things are toughest.

Peach, you are like a flower that has blossomed in the spring, like a fruit that has ripened so sweetly on the vine, like a prayer answered to us.
We love you with all that we are, and all that we have.
Love, Daddy and Mommy.