Dear Ellie:

You played in the sun all day today. In fact every time the sun shines I try to make sure we take advantage partly because I want you to be active and partly because selfishly I want to spend as much time seeing you play as possible because it truly makes my day so much better. Also considering you braved your first brutal, drawn out, harsh, arctic Chicago winter like a seasoned professional you deserve every bit of sun that you can get. Today though as we took a walk with Daddy I realized that it was probably going to storm just as the weather man predicted and I mentioned that I needed to get a new umbrella because my old one broke and Daddy turned and said to me “well the rain is going to come”. A simple enough response and the kind you probably know by now your Daddy always gives. But with this simple response it dawned on me that we really do have to enjoy the sunshine and I mean realllly enjoy it not do the things we love but still have our worries and troubles in the back of our minds. I truly hope you live in the moment. Even when you get to your teen years and have that pimple that just won’t go away or when you enter “the real world” and every time you check the mail there’s a bill. No matter what phase of life you are in when you read this live in your moment and define your moment for what you want it to be not by what is thrown at you. Because my baby the storm will come and it will thunder, lighting, hail and more but just as sure as it will come the storm will go and you’ll realize a few rain drops even a couple pieces of hail did not destroy you. And when your storm comes I hope that you didn’t spend your moment in the sun before the storm worrying about how loud the thunder would be or how hard it would pour. You can’t control the weather and you can’t stop hard times from coming but you can enjoy every good moment so much so that the storm doesn’t seem so bad. And tonight the storm did in fact come just like Daddy said but even when I cringed as the thunder rumbled and the rain fell because I didn’t want it to wake you, you stayed peaceful. So I pray that during your storms you find peace just like you had tonight even long after Mommy is no longer there (or wanted) to rock you to sleep. There will be times that you’ll want to pray for the storm to end or for a way out but some storms you just have to weather and honestly my baby its not as bad as it seems that I can promise you. In fact when you can look back and realize that you now know who’s truly in your corner because they were the ones holding up your umbrella or even your own strength to keep pressing when you can only see two inches in front of you in the rain that in itself will be worth it. Have faith that each moment has its purpose the good, bad and ugly. You don’t have to know the big picture just HAVE FAITH. And my baby believe me even when you think you’ve figured out the big picture little do you know there are a million more pieces to the puzzle. So again I say just enjoy your sunshine don’t worry yourself about the storms because they are sure to come and they are sure to go. 

Love Always,

Mommy

P.S. To the little girl standing in the rain with no shelter in sight have faith that no storm last forever and the storm doesn’t mean that your journey ends sometimes its a sign to take another route or sometimes it just an opportunity to dance. And remember you are not alone every one experiences rain it never falls on just one person. So however you choose to face your storm know that you can make back to your sunshine.