You took my heart by surprise and I wasn't expecting that...

All nieces are brilliant and beautiful and obviously take after their Aunt. - Unknown

My Sister is so crafty, she made a baby. From scratch.

When I found out my sister was pregnant it brought on so many feelings of excitement. And I hoped so very much for a niece. I’d already obtained (not be questionable means) two nephews who I do adore, but my life was missing a little girl. I wanted to share the same love that my aunt gave my sister and I with a niece of my own. Of course, I love my nephews just the same and I make sure to spend as much time with them as possible so that when they look back, they can know the love I have felt from my own aunt.

And lucky Surprise! It’s a girl. My heart soared with excitement and possibility. When Aria was born, I had a hard time concentrating at work because I was so excited to meet her, it was my 3rd day on the job. But the true magic happened when I saw my sister holding my new niece. I saw the love and the exhaustion. I saw the compassion of what a mother should be in the very same sister. I saw the impossible and I continue to see it every day.

Western Day at Aria's PreSchool

My sister was proof that something beautiful could come from a dark place (not that my sister is dark… all the time.) But rather that we both experienced the lack of mother-daughter connection with our own mother. I feared that we both would be doomed to repeat the cycle of absent mothers. Being a little sister, I have always looked to my sister for hope and guidance, even in the times that rage in my heart free flowed. I had always figured that happiness wasn't in our cards. I saw the cycle broken and just like the Grinch, my heart grew three sizes that day.

Part of my reason for moving to Tempe was to be close to my sister and niece and make it part of my routine to see her once a week or more. Cut to me picking Aria up from pre-school a few weeks back and watching her throw the most startling fit about me being in the same room with her. The horror. The Stranger Danger of it all. But I just love all of the moments I get to spend with her and the best part, is getting to watch her grow from squishy baby into a tiny person. It’s so very weird for me to be excited to see the person she becomes and she’s not even my child.

I can only imagine if/when I have children, my heart will explode because it stands, I can barely contain the joy this child brings me, Stranger Danger Tantrums and all.

My family is my strength and my weakness. - Aishwarya Rai Bachchan

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I'm So Sorry That You Have to Have A Body....

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