When you look at this piece of paper you see what is immediately visible. It’s a blank page.

Kind of like any child, they are all blank pages. Not one of them is depicted in What (not) to Expect.  They all have challenges, mountains they have to climb. Some days it is with their parent’s assistance, some days it is their teacher and some days it is just pure stubbornness.

Like Forest Gump said, you never know what you are going to get. This is what makes parenting kind of cool.  There are very few surprises in this life. Then this squalling infant is placed in your arms (or older if you’ve chosen to adopt) and everything you thought you knew flies out the window.  You learn to navigate temper tantrums, potty training (this could be a longer battle than the 30-years war), emerging hormones and when life let’s them down you catch them.

It doesn’t matter if your child is with or without a rare syndrome.

What does matter is (sadly, because I should have celebrated Abby’s milestones as much as I do her sister’s) is when they go from being a blank page to something more than you imagined.  When Bridget rolled over for the first time. When the holes in her heart closed. When she had spinal surgery. When she went to school the first day.

When she wrote her name.

Life is a blank page.

It matters what you write on it.

Even if you never imagined she would.

The blank page is a reminder to me, that life with Bridget is unwritten. She is her own autobiographer.

I’m just here to document it.

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This post was brought to you by the wonderful Kristi at Finding Ninee and Mardra from Grown Ups & Downs as the Finish the Sentence Friday prompt:

Blank Page

What would you write on it?