Dear Mary and Caroline,
As I write this, weary from a day that started at a pre-dawn birthday celebration (the only time we would be together as a family), I am listening to the hum of the washing machine (which is truly white noise in our family), dinner simmering on the stove (thanks, Grandma!), and your sweet voices, chattering nicely as you affix your new reusable stickers to the windows in the family room.
When I found out you were twins, I wondered about how I would handle two of you. How I would manage everything times two. How my life would double in just about everything.
What I didn’t consider, even as you were tiny babies, is that having you little people-both of you- would mean you would never be alone. My life managing you didn’t hold as much weight as the life you would get to live together with your twin sister.
You will never have to sit alone on the bleachers as your big siblings play in ballgames. You will always have a friend to giggle with as you play with your new puppet theater. You will always have a person exactly your same age to experience life with.
Friendships are valuable. Siblings are something to sing about. But having a twin? Someone to walk in step with down life’s road? That’s incredible.
Sweet girls, being your mama has been the greatest joy and the deepest reward, and it’s not just because you have been created to complete our family. You are a gift to each other every day. You may not be a matched set, but your twin bond grows stronger as you step into each stage, and doing everything times two allows your dad and me to enjoy all these lasts as parents doubly.
Now, being a parent of all of the big kids and you two at the end has been and will continue to be a challenge. It takes time and preparation. It takes saying no and missing out, but it is worth it. Worth all of the extra laundry, extra parent-teacher conference, extra shoes to tie, hair to wash, bed to make, question to answer, song to sing.
Mary Kathleen and Caroline Suzanne, the day you were born shifted the balance of our family. With each year you’re on this earth, we see that this balance is exactly what we needed. Your lives times two has created a space for us to grow and love and learn in more ways than we can imagine.
Happy birthday to you, my darling girls. May you always know that while your twin will always be by your side, your mama and daddy are right here, believing in you, helping you, caring about you. Times two.
XO,
Mommy
