I thought I was here to give you love.
But it turns out I need your love too.
At first I was overwhelmed because so many of you craved attention.
But today I realized I want your attention too.
Maybe we are not so different—me and you.
When I look into your big brown eyes I see the need for love.
But then I see my reflection there also.
And as I’m holding you, I feel loved too.
It took me awhile to figure it out, but I am thankful I have a week left to see it.
I am thankful for all the pictures of you, and I have lots of mental pictures too.
I am thankful you made it into my heart so that I can carry you with me when I leave.
And because of you, I can see a bigger picture now.
I have a bit of perspective.
You see, God loves you just as He loves me.
So it is only because of Him that my love for you and your love for me is so great.
I am only able to love you because He loved me first.
I hope you felt that love when I held you and kissed you on the cheek.
Because I definitely felt His love when you hugged me back and kissed my cheek.
And so I walk away loved, in love and humbled.
Thank you for showing me what “faith like a child” is meant to look like.
Thank you for trusting me to love you.
Thank you for loving me even when I didn’t feel like loving you back.
Thank you for reminding me that the Father’s love is greater than all of our love combined.
Thank you for teaching me that I am never too good,
too tired,
too messed up,
too unmotivated,
too overwhelmed,
or too [insert lame excuse here]
to receive your love and the love of our Father.
I thought I was here to give you love.
But it turns out I need your love too.
Coscon always gave me sweet kisses on the cheeck. He also repeated everything I said. We called him our little parrot.
