When you're 13.

When you're 13...I won't second guess having rocked you to sleep at night.

You will have told me you "hate me" by then and I will want to remember the following:

Your hair is fine, yet you seem to have a lot of it. It's blond - very blond, but your eyelashes are light brown with blond highlights. Your eyebrows are fairly light as well - leaving me perplexed, as we rock, whether your hair will look more like mine or your dads.

Some nights after a bath, we start our nighttime routine and your hair is damp. I wonder which way I'm supposed to part it - which way it wants to go - and hope I don't "ruin your 13-year-old self" with a calick you're bound to blame me for anyway. 

You're easy to settle as we rock. We read a book or two - most nights you turn the pages yourself - and then we "turn in" and rock you (sometimes me) to sleep.

Your head fits in the curve of my neck, your little arm around the other side.

At times when you've been more resistant to sleep...I get my nose picked, my cheeks squeezed, my eyes inspected, my lips motor-boated, and my mouth inspected. And as you do all of these things - I think yes, you could be trying harder to go to sleep, but I also think - every single thing you're touching and exploring is for the first time for you - brand new. How awesome is that? You have no idea it's 'inappropriate' to put your fingers in someone's nose and then especially when you immediately put it right in THEIR mouth! You have no idea, sweet cherub.

Your personality right now is beaming through! You are a pleaser - you want to be a good girl. You also LOVE to laugh, entertain, and explore.

I look forward to having the story of 1yr old to 13 years old to tell...which is why I wanted to capture it thus far.

You warm my heart and those of many others - with your "hey" and "ooh" and "dawg" - you'll have so many other crowd pleasing and personal accomplishments by the time you're 13.

I look SO forward to YOU rocking us sweet Georgia.

I love you sweet peach,
Mom

Daddy's letter to you from work:

written by: Bill Reeves July 22, 2013
 
662 Heartbreaks…for Georgia.

Its hard to leave home. To leave the 2 most precious people in my life. I’ve been spoiled to no end since I’ve returned from overseas, and yet now here I sit in another state going through the process of deploying along side our forces yet once again. But this time is so much different. I always had empathy for our forces that had to leave their children behind, but never really had that connection to just what it felt like.

Now I do.

I’ve been blessed to watch my wife grow into the loving, caring parent she was meant to be. She really is a strong women who was meant to do many great things…one of them is to be a mother to our beautiful Daughter. I would hope that as a father, I am half as good as she is as a mother…I try my best. I’ve watched her take great care of our little girl even before birth and even better care after birth now for a year. I’ve been so blessed to have the ability to be there every day until now.

It is true that the hardest thing I think I have ever done in my life was kissing you Georgia the morning I left out. You were sleeping soundly and safely and barely noticed my kiss upon your cheek. Holding you the night before when you went down, trying to read to you through my tears was difficult enough, but nothing compares to closing that the door to your room knowing that it would be at least 6 months before I looked upon you with my own eyes again.

I want you to know that your Daddy has a particular skill that makes him pretty good at this job. I want you to know that your Daddy will be safe and is surrounded by people he trusts while he is off in this far away place. I want you to know that there will not be one single day that I do not think of you and your mother, our family and friends. It is those memories that keep me going and allow me to do the best job I can. I want you to know that over there, we fight very mean people, that care nothing about your safety, your education, or what you want to be in life. That is why I’m there.

It is the way that I can contribute to our Country. To be beside our forces and work as one team, one fight, one family. I’ve met some really great people like Wendy, Vic, Joseph, Jay, Doug, Fincher, James, Jim, Eric, OB, Shershaw, Sahar, Honishka and the list goes on and on. These people DO care about your future, even though they have never met you.

So I go to this beautiful far away land knowing that not only do I serve my country, But I serve your future….and hat is how I will get through my day.

I miss you Georgia already and ever night when I go to bed in my bunk, my heart will break….because I missed kissing you good night. Every morning when I wake up, my heart will break….because our time together will not be. 662 times my heart will break. But every day is 1 one day closer to the end of that.

I will be “Daddy in the box” now for a while. Be good for your mother, sleep tight, and treat her well….and know that I cannot wait to hold you again in my own arms, to feel your kiss on my cheek, to feel your arms around my neck. That goes for your Mommy too.

I love you Georgia.

Daddy