A letter to Sofia Faith (part 1)

You weren’t named immediately my darling. We were so elated that it had all gone so smoothly and that we had you here with us. That first hour with you was precious. The room was quiet and we were left to ourselves to stare at you in wonder and awe.

Daddy wanted to call you Sofia. And as he had just that moment before given me a beautiful eternity ring, I could hardly say no. Besides, I liked Faith for a middle name, and the writer in me, loved how the 'fia' and the 'Fai' sat together. So that was that. Although, as time has gone on you have shown solidly that you truly suit Mabel, and I've often used it for you, with great affection.

Oh that affection. We loved you so fiercely from the moment we held you. Our new life, our little sister for Esme Grace. Our Sofia Faith.

You weighed 8lb and I was pleased to see you had a few folds on you. Many bracelets of skin overlapping on each arm. How we could not stop watching you; taking in every detail there was to take. You had a little dot of a mark on your right earlobe that resembled a piercing - the very same as Esme. 

As we watched you in that first hour, you watched right back at us with your gorgeous wide open blue eyes. Our lives had changed yet again forever.

There was of course one person missing in that room the night you were born. Little Esme Grace. She met you the following afternoon when she climbed up on the hospital bed and peered in the little perspex cot beside it. Seeing you, she said to me, ‘I love her Mummy.’ Seriously, those were her first words.

and Grace met Faith for the first time