My dearest baby Kendall Quinn –
you have done it – you have achieved a goal that at times I didn’t dare let myself look forward to. You have added up days into weeks, weeks into months, and months into one whole year. When I look back and think that at times we were going hour by hour, this year seems like a huge feat.
You are such an inspiration to me, in a way that I am not even sure I can define. You are so much like your sisters, and yet so very different. You possess a strength and sweetness about you in spite of all you battle through that I KNOW would have long run out in your sassy bigger sisters! You have a way of turning the ordinary into the extraordinary, of making the mundane miraculous. YOU are miraculous.
You have taught me that the limits of what I thought I could do as a mommy really know no bounds. you have taught me that being a mommy sometimes means that putting you through pain will make you feel better. you have taught me to learn to find not only my own voice with the doctors, but yours. You have taught me that sometimes the only way I can stand through the waves that life brings is to fall to my knees. And you have taught me what love, True Love, really means; who God really is.
And you have done all of this without words.
I do not know what this next year will bring. I can only imagine it will contain its own share of ups and downs, worries and waits, hopes and fears – as most years do. We will learn to adjust to life with you – even if that means many ER visits and learning the real meaning of emergency. I am so excited to see your new inchstones, and your new milestones, and the many new places you’ll go as you learn new amazing things.
i cannot wait till I can show you just how very loved and cared for and prayed for you were this first year of your life. do you know how many people pray for you? do you have an angel who whispers it into your ear during your hardest times? do you have a sense of your special mission here on this earth? sometimes i think you do. I think God maybe gave you a special sense of just knowing – cause sometimes I can see in your eyes that you are here to Live. You are here to show us all how to Live.
You are my amazing baby. And i am so very blessed to be your mommy.
I love you with all my heart baby girl.
Keep on Keepin’ On.
– mommy
I’m crying AGAIN, Terra. I love the word “inchstones.”
Happy birthday Kendall…thanks for sharing this video Terra. Amazing.
You are truely amazing Terra. The video is awesome and I am bawling…again.
She is beautiful. I just realized recently that this is something Kendall {and you} has endured since her birth. What an amazing story she has. Happy Birthday!!
Been following you all quietly, but I had to write on the occasion of Kendall’s first birthday. Congratulations and YAH Kendall!
Praying and hoping along with you.
Happy Birthday sweet Kendall! What a beautiful video Terra. I’m sure that was uber emotional to put together. Praise God for one year of LIFE. Lots of love coming your way. Big SMOOCH!
Happy Birthday Kendall! A beautiful girl and so beautifully written! Blessings to you and your sweet girl!
Happy Birthday Kendall! Your mom made the sweetest video!
Just stopping by to check you guys out since you left a comment on my BF post about comments 🙂
Just saw your beautiful, inspirational video. I need to go get the kleenex box but wanted you to know you are all amazing!! Love and prayers!!!
Terra, I just came back to catch up on like 2 weeks of your blog, and this video just made me start sobbing. I remember the days right before she was born and how normal everything was. How we were planning for you to be back to work in a couple of weeks and everything. And I remember holding Kendall the day before she was admitted for RSV and she was so calm and happy. And I remember you calling me the next day as they were taking her away in the ambulance, and we couldn’t believe it.
You and Kendall are both truly my heroes. You possess strength I could never know or understand. I pray that years from now Kendall looks back at these pictures and realizes how BIG our God is, and just how MUCH her Mommy loves her.
Happy 1st Birthday Kendall! You are loved more than you may ever know.
Kendall is a miracle baby girl, I love her slideshow, and all of your girls are beautiful. You went to my blog (through McKmama/Blogfrog) and left a comment, and I thought I saw somewhere you are in GA also, so I thought I’d head on over to peak into your life as well…beautiful family you have there. I added you to my “following” list 🙂