Nummies (a maternity/nursing bra retailer) recently posted this beautiful and simple video. (Thanks to Emerging Mummy for posting it on her blog.)

Watching this movie brought me to tears. Tears of relief at seeing others say the things I finally now can accept as true. Tears of pain — the pain of knowing just how true those words are. Tears of sadness as I thought about what I would tell myself if I could go back.

I would say:

Be brave.

You will make mistakes.

Forgive yourself.

But the most important thing is probably this.

You are braver than you think.

You won’t pass out.

You will do what it takes to care for her, and you’ll do fine,
…even if it means giving her shots.

(In case you’re new here, my first child spent her first 6 weeks of life in the cardiac intensive care unit, needed four open-heart surgeries in three years, suffered a brain injury, and spent her short 8 years of life battling seizures, lung weakness, and a body that wouldn’t cooperate with her.)