Before I Became a Parent

I couldn’t imagine her face.

Before I became a parent, I could never picture what Sydney would look like. While I was pregnant, I studied our sonograms, trying to imagine our baby girl’s features. I spent countless moments trying to visualize a miniature combination of me and Carlyle, but I was never able to piece together her piercing eyes, her button nose, her tiny mouth.

Yet just seconds after her birth, I realized that I would never remember what it felt like to not know her face. She was always within me.

She was always within Carlyle, too.

Originally published on Facebook on November 16, 2017.