The One

Once again I am up way too late. Sleep just doesn't come easy for me. I decided to look through some old documents and see what I could get rid of and I came across the poem I gave my daughter in law at her bridal shower. It makes me weepy every time I read it.


Daughter-in-Love

You came to me
not after nine months of waiting...
No, I had to wait years
before you came into my life.
And then, there you were...
fresh-faced, hair swinging,
that marvelous smile enhanced
by the altogether lovely spirit
shining in your sparkling eyes.
He proudly presented you to me
and I knew you were THE ONE.
I'd often wondered how I would feel
when the first of my sons "got serious"
about a girl.
It's not that I thought she wouldn't be
"worthy" --
I worried that she wouldn't
love him enough
or believe in his dreams
or laugh at his jokes.
Would she support his decisions
yet stand up for her own?
Would she be strong through the bad times
and cherish the good times?
Would she like me?
Would I like HER?
And then I met you, and I knew...
Here was not a person I could call
"Daughter-in-Law,"
because that sounds like a contract
and doesn't begin to describe our relationship.
Law has nothing to do with it... but LOVE does.
And so you are my Daughter-in-Love,
who grew not under my heart,
but certainly in it.

-Poem by Roberta Anne Hahn