Darling girl, you wouldn’t have believed me even if I told you. You wouldn’t have believed where you would be today. How differently you see the world.

Understandably so.

The things that worried you 15 years ago are now distant memories and today, you delight in the thought of those things. Dresses, shoes, the right shade of lipstick. The band, the food, the pictures.

Those things were your life then, and you were lucky to be able to indulge that way. In many ways, it was a luxury.

Over the past 15 years, though, your worries have changed. That’s what happens when your heart lives outside of your body, parading around as your two precious children. That’s what happens when you face cancer. That’s what happens when you build a life together with your partner. That’s what happens when you ride the ups and downs together; gaining strength and growing along the way.

But it’s also what happens when you see Christmas through the eyes of your children. It’s what happens when you watch them define their own preferences. It’s what happens when you see the life you and he have built - the strength the two of you have cultivated over time.

You are not the same person as you were 15 years ago. Neither of you are and that’s a really great thing. Growth is good.

Darling girl, you wouldn’t have believed me even if I told you. You wouldn’t have believed that all of your hopes and dreams would be exceeded. You wouldn’t have believed that there was more. More than you hoped or dreamed for.

In the face of the scary times, the uncertainty, the times of disappointments, the true light of your life 15 years later would be better than you could have ever hoped for.

It shines in your children. It shines in the loving home your provide them. It shines in your deep friendships. It shines in your talents. And, most importantly, it shines in the love the two of you share that is steeped in faith, mutual respect, and a genuine belief that no matter what, we are better together.