My sweet Brody…when you get to be as old as your Mimmie, you might start to realize there are things you wish you’d said more intentionally to your own kids, as they were growing up, or, at the very least, you’ll wish you had said them better. I heard once that grandchildren can be a kind of “do-over.” I don’t agree with that entirely, for you are not mine to raise, day in and day out. However, because I am removed from the constancy of your daily care, I think those things that need saying can rise more easily, and with greater clarity, to the top of my heart. It’s my hope that this letter (and the ones to follow in years to come) will help make your life’s road a little easier to travel.

It’s been three months, today, since you came into the world. I walked the halls of that hospital for hours with your mommy, waiting and waiting and waiting for you to come. You’re whole birth experience was fraught with drama, but when they finally turned you over to your mommy and daddy, the earth stood still for a moment to acknowledge the extraordinary life that had just entered its atmosphere. I know the angels sang, because I’m pretty sure I could hear them.

You were tiny, and wrinkly, and covered with hair, and your face…your face was a mirror of your sister’s, sweet and beautiful. We couldn’t get over it. They thought you were three weeks early, but that’s since been disproved, bringing you back to one week early like your mommy knew all along. Over the last three months, you’ve wasted no time catching up. You’ve grown by leaps and bounds – and pounds! – now big and strapping, and absolutely adorable. You and I share dimples, a little physical trait given to me by my grandmother, so that when the nurse at the hospital first noticed it and I saw it for myself, I cried.

I loved being there to watch you enter this world. And I’ve loved the privilege of getting to be with you for a little over a third of your life, so far. That’s a pretty big deal for a grandmother who lives several states away, but I hope you’ll come to see that I’m not an ordinary grandmother. Not because I’m anything special, or better than anyone else, but because I try to be really intentional about being a significant part of your life. I want, maybe more than anything else, to be instrumental in growing your little heart.

You see, sweetheart, you will be a man one day. Being a good man requires more than physical health and strength, more than a sound mind and great education, and more than a career that he loves. Although all those things are important, if you want to be a truly good man who makes a difference in his world, that requires a good heart that is in submission to One bigger than himself.  It must show kindness and tenderness toward others, and that type of heart is what will help solidify your own marriage one day, and be the guiding light for your family.

So, as your Mimmie, I promise to pray for you, to listen to you, to create an atmosphere of love for you that ultimately turns your heart toward heaven. I promise to embrace all the wonderful boyish things about you, nurture your love of dirt, bugs, and anything else that might be foreign territory for me (what with all the girls in my life), because those are the very things that will flesh out your male potential one day. Those are the things that help you understand who you are and how wonderfully God made you. Those are the things that will help you grow that tender heart. Well, those things and some good cuddling in the rocker with some Dr. Seuss. But we’ll talk about that later.

I’m so thankful for you, my beautiful boy.

Your Mimmie loves you Brody…as big as the sky.