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Shantel, Happy ‘1st’
Birthday …
Daddy and Mommy have been
planning your birthday party for weeks. They even mailed personalized
party invitations with your picture on it. Uncle Leonard helped plant
beautiful multi-colored flowers in the back yard just for your party!
Daddy, with his own hands, made toys for you to play with. Auntie Niiki
and Mommy selected and created a spectacular array of delicious foods,
along with your first birthday cake. You even have a pretty outfit and
new shoes too! Shantel, Daddy and Mommy love, adore you, and want to
shower you with their love on this special occasion. You see ‘Little
Darlin,’ you are their miracle baby.
I remember your Daddy
ringing me on the phone one night, he said, “Hi Grandpa.” Oh, my heart
came alive when I heard those words! Daddy and Mommy just heard the news
that the “Baby Stork” was bringing you to them. They were overwhelmed
with excitement; just as I was when I knew the stork was bringing your
Daddy to me thirty years earlier.
Daddy called me first with
the news. I was so grateful and honored, and of course, very excited! My
wish of being a ‘Grandpa’ came true! I always loved being your Daddy’s
Dad and your Mommy’s ‘Pops,’ now I would be your Grandpa! Ah, those were
great days!
As the weeks and months
passed, you grew in Mommy’s tummy. Everyone could hardly wait to hear your
monthly doctor’s progress report. Along the way, Daddy called late one
night very scared and sad. He told me you may be sick and had to take you
and Mommy to the hospital. I started crying after talking with Daddy, you
see, I was scared I might lose you! Shortly after, I went to be with
Daddy and Mommy. I tried to be strong so they would feel better, still,
my heart was on fire and my spirit saddened.
When I returned home late
that night, I went in search of your Great Grandpa Shaw’s Bible. Your
Great-Great Grandparents gave it to him in the year nine-teen thirty-six,
when he was 13 years old. I held it over my heart, while asking God to
grant you good health. I even asked him to take me to heaven if he would
please let you have a healthy life. I cradled my father’s bible as I cried
myself to sleep. Every night until the stork brought you to Mommy and
Daddy I took the bible to bed and prayed for you, placing it over my heart
as I slept.
The doctors eventually
told Mommy she needed a complicated test, she and Daddy were nervous, and
so was I. Daddy and I went with Mommy that day. We all prayed for good
news. God answered our prayers. It was a welcome sigh of joy, optimism
and hope. You had all of us scared, yet, in the end, ‘The Stork’
delivered you, a healthy baby girl. It is a day I will never forget!
Someday, when you are old enough to read this story and talk to Daddy and
Mommy, they will tell you more about of how your life began.
Shantel, in your first
year of life you remind me of your Daddy when he was your age. There is a
true story of a unique species of Bamboo that grows in a remote place in
China. It reminds me of you and him. As the story goes, Chinese farmers
plant tiny baby bamboo seeds in the earth’s rich soil. They are watered,
nurtured, fertilized and tended to every day for five years, yet they do
not sprout or even peak a hint of growth. Then, without warning, they
suddenly shoot through the fertile soil, and in the next ninety-days grow
skyward over nine feet. The reason I tell you this story is that since
the stork first told Mommy and Daddy you were coming, and in your first
year of living, they have nurtured you just like the baby bamboo. You
have blossomed because of their care and love. I do not expect you will
ever be nine feet tall, still, I know, as you grow older and wiser your
stature and greatness will far exceed our wildest dreams.
You are probably wondering
what does this have to do with the picture of two salt-water toffees with
hearts in the middle of them. Well Shantel, when I first saw “Kiss Kiss”
I knew the artist created it especially for us. The little red hearts in
the middle of the taffy are yours and mine, separate yet together. Every
time I held that bible next to my heart and prayed for you, our hearts
miraculously connected, and that is what this picture represents.
I have been saving “Kiss
Kiss” for your first birthday. Whenever you look at it remember, “Grandpa
loves Shantel.”
The following is a prayer
I really like. It makes me think how God, your parents, grandparents and
family love you and protect you.
“Please help us protect
our children, just as you protect all of us who are Your children. Teach
us to keep them safe from bodily and emotional harm, and to celebrate the
joy and dignity of knowing that with every step they take in this hard,
rough school of earth, Your Hand will never leave theirs and Your Light
will let them see the path ahead more clearly, no matter how much it winds
through the inevitable threatening darkness. We are blessed by the very
presence of Your smallest and youngest arrivals among us, and it is our
oath to You to care for them as surely as if they were all our own. Amen.
“Kiss Kiss” painting by Rachael Hart, 2001
Kiss Kiss is an original oil painting with
two vanilla salt-water taffy candies sitting side by side, both with a red
heart in the center. I purchased it and gave it to Shantel for her 1st
birthday
© Duane Shaw
August 3, 2003 |
