{"id":257,"date":"2012-06-15T18:57:59","date_gmt":"2012-06-15T18:57:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kandynolesstevens.com\/?p=257"},"modified":"2012-06-15T18:57:59","modified_gmt":"2012-06-15T18:57:59","slug":"a-letter-to-reed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/?p=257","title":{"rendered":"A letter to Reed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Dear Reed \u2013 About this time seventeen years ago, I was finally holding you in my arms after 14 hours of pretty hard labor.\u00a0 But at that moment, \u00a0I didn\u2019t remember one single bit of the pain, because my dream of being a momma was finally achieved and your story began.<\/p>\n

The nurse wheeled you and the lady’s in the next room baby down to us. Suddenly, the other baby\u2019s 3-year-old sister popped her head out of the room and said, \u201cThat\u2019s my new baby brother.\u201d\u00a0 The nurse responded with a simple nod and a \u201cyes\u201d.\u00a0 \u201cWhat\u2019s that baby\u2019s name?\u201d\u00a0 The nurse replied, \u201cReed\u201d, at which the little girl put her hands on her hips and said, \u201cBut I can\u2019t read!\u201d\u00a0 Instead of chuckling, I panicked.\u00a0 What had we done!\u00a0 Because Reed is a family name, it never occurred to me that it was also a homophone.\u00a0 But it was too late to we had already made it official.\u00a0 And to the little girl, she only knew that your name was written on the bassinet and she didn\u2019t know her letters yet to \u201cread\u201d.<\/p>\n

Right up until the 11th<\/sup> hour, we were going to name you Jackson Theodore (after my favorite movie character and president), but over Mother\u2019s Day we changed our minds.\u00a0 Reed Daniel just seemed fitting.\u00a0 We spent hours pouring over baby name books and dissecting the meanings.\u00a0 Even though we weren\u2019t enamored with the meaning of Reed (red-haired), we still stuck with our hearts and named you after your Grandpa Jr and Papa.<\/p>\n

When the nurse wheeled you in and I got to see the cleaned up version of you, I laughed out loud because under that miniscule knitted cap were the tiniest red curls I had ever seen.\u00a0 It was then that I knew definitively that God has a healthy sense of humor.\u00a0 He took my fears and washed them away by making the earthly meaning of your name a part of your DNA.<\/p>\n

It was a reminder to me that He knew your name the moment you were formed and He knew that your adorable red hair would always be a part of your identity.<\/p>\n

There are so many things that God knew would be a part of your story, and looking back, we wish we could have known how little time we would have to help write that story.\u00a0 As for the rest of us, we continue to pen the story of our hearts missing you and facing (albeit not bravely or not composed) all those firsts without you.<\/p>\n

God knew and so did we that you loved learning, but we were all shocked when you announced on New Year\u2019s Day of 2007 that you would be attending Yale University.\u00a0 So when your first private college application arrived over Christmas last year, I was totally unprepared and I lost it.\u00a0 We guessed these things would happen, but I just wasn\u2019t ready for it.\u00a0 Desperately, I wanted to sit down and say, \u201cReed, I know it\u2019s not Yale, but what do you think about this one?\u201d Thankfully, the story of your love of learning carries on in your scholarship.<\/p>\n

The same thing happened when I went to the school on a Sunday night with Sawyer and saw 9 of your classmates\u2019 parents filtering out of the building.\u00a0 I knew immediately \u2013 junior class parents all together meant a prom meeting.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t see me, but I pulled over and bawled and bawled.\u00a0 I wanted to help you pick out a tux, pick flowers for your girl, and make a real Southern feast for your first prom.\u00a0 But instead of popular tunes, your music was the sound of prairie grass waving in a North Dakota field.<\/p>\n

I know I am not the only one who misses you.\u00a0 In the past year, we have all had our ups and downs.\u00a0 Daddy just has never been the same.\u00a0 He misses you with every fiber of his being. \u00a0Sawyer changed his mind on you doing the hunting and him being the chef.\u00a0 He went to see you in North Dakota and got his first deer on Uncle Bryan\u2019s farm place.\u00a0 Well, he\u00a0somewhat changed his mind, because he is still the most fabulous cook.\u00a0 He also took on some leadership roles with his faith this year \u2013 just like you did\u00a0near the end of your story. Erin still continues to grow and mature, and we have seen her take a stand (even among friends) to do the right thing.\u00a0 You would have been proud.\u00a0 And Cloie, she misses you beyond her years.\u00a0 She really wishes that you could send her a letter from heaven, but she comforts herself with stories about you and your adventures.\u00a0 Those stories have become a part of her identity and while on vacation, she told one about \u201cremember when\u201d and she wasn\u2019t even a year old when it occurred.\u00a0 But we have told it enough that she knew exactly when and where it happened; so now it is a part of her story.<\/p>\n

I just wanted you to know that we are celebrating your 17th<\/sup> birthday today, and Cloie will be sending you a letter on her balloons.\u00a0 Even though we are bracing ourselves for the other firsts of your senior year, we are almost daily comforted by the fact that your story (well God\u2019s and your story) continue to transform lives.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

And that, my son, is a story well-written!<\/p>\n

Loving you until we see you again – Mom<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Reed \u2013 About this time seventeen years ago, I was finally holding you in my arms after 14 hours of pretty hard labor.\u00a0 But at that moment, \u00a0I didn\u2019t remember one single bit of the pain, because my dream of being a momma was finally achieved and your story began. The nurse wheeled you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[61,524,592],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}