A Birthday to celebrate and remember

Today is my wonderful daughter's 12th birthday -a day of celebration and memories, of milestones reached and dreams and goals yet to be achieved. Every day is a gift. No day to me brings this more home than on her birthday.
You see 12 years ago as I happily celebrated her safe arrival and her wonderous little being, my friend in the bed next to me said hello and goodbye to her little son.  We laughed the night before how there was one bassinet in the room and told each other they would share it -making them "birthday twins" and special friends forever. They still shared that bassinet one as an angel on earth the other as her special angel in heaven.  There were no words I could say to her as they wheeled her to say goodbye to her special delivery as I held mine close to me feeling her heartbeat and her eyes already seeking the beauty of the world.
I still think of that day both wonderous and terrible when life in all its complexities were shown to us.
The beauty of birth and how fragile life is.

So to my beautiful daughter and her birthday angel in heaven -Happy Birthday to both of you.