Brittany Packnett Instagram – to my unborn son, on my 40th birthday,
you are the most beautiful surprise I did not know to ask for. in the shadow of the failures of a nation, you grow as a testament to impossibility and abundance. before you came, i did not know to dream of you. Now that you are on your way, my love for you is boundless.
you are proof of miracles, signs and wonders. proof that songs of joy are always worth singing. proof that God’s promises are yea and amen even and especially when they least look like it.
i vow to protect you and your most precious brother with my life, not simply by my sacrifice, but by the way i live. in my now 40 years on this earth, i am clearer than ever that no matter what they say, i am free. you and your brother will bear witness to a free Black woman so that you will know you, too, are free. you will bear witness to a woman who is proud to be a mother-and everything else i was born to be. you will bear witness to the unbent backs of every mother in me and before me, to the victorious lineage that runs through you, to the unbowed heads of Black people who give your lives pride and your names meaning.
you will know a woman who embraces evolution with courage and the unexpected with great faith. you will know a friend who finally knows her sensitivity is not a flaw, but a blessing of compassion that fuels her imperfect but very big heart. you will know a mommy who knows my power and my joy don’t come from the world—and that makes it unbreakable.
what a gift you are, butterfly.
happy birthday to me.
on this, the dawn of a new decade, with more love than there are words,
mommy. | Posted on 12/Nov/2024 19:31:43
