If I Can't Love Her

Not just the title to one of my favorite songs from a Broadway Musical ("Beauty and the Beast"--it's the last song of the first act before the intermission) it is also how I feel about my beautiful, intelligent, helpful, creative daughter-Leah Rose.
Tomorrow marks the 5th year since I went into the hospital to "have" her, she just wasn't born for another 16 days. :) For those of you who don't yet know the story...I went in for what would be the start of my every two-week visits to the Doctor and was diagnosed Preclamptic. My doctor's office was located in the same block of the hospital and he sent me right over to be admitted and have an Amniocentesis (a large needle is inserted through the abdomen to retrieve a sample of amniotic fluid to determine the maturity of the childs lungs). Her lungs were rather underdeveloped for her age group so they loaded me up with Magnesium Sulfate (to drop my through the roof blood pressure) and gave me a 4-dose steroid treatment to encourage her lungs to develop. Well, 16 days later she was delivered and 18 days later I was released from the hospital.

Some things I learned about Leah before she was born...
-She loves to move, especially to dance. She was dancing in my womb at 16 weeks.
-She does things in her time and if she wants to. Thinking of creative, positive ways to encourage to make certain/good choices is a FULL-TIME job.
-I love her with every fiber of my being. She is the one who taught me of the love there can be between a mother and a child.

Some things I have learned from Leah over the last 5 years...
-Love is unlimited and unconditional.
-Compliments given and received brighten everyone's day.
-Forgiveness comes without conditions.

I love my daughter. My greatest hope and prayer is that we will have a close relationship throughout our lives.