Tears are streaming down her face. She’s stroking our baby girl’s cheek, smiling.

Crying.

Laughing.

“I don’t want to count her fingers or toes,” Lake whispers. “I don’t care if she has two toes or three fingers or fifty feet. I love her so much, Will. She’s perfect.”

She is perfect. So perfect. “Just like her mom,” I say.

I lean my head against Lake’s and we just stare. We stare at the daughter who is so much more than I could have asked for. The daughter who is so much more than I dreamt of. So much more than I ever thought I would have. This girl. This baby girl is my life. Her mother is my life. These girls are both my life.

I reach down and pick up her hand. Her tiny fingers reflexively wrap around my pinky and I can’t choke back my tears any longer. “Hey, Julia. It’s me. It’s your daddy.”

my final piece

We’re born into the world

As just one small piece to the puzzle

That makes up an entire life.

It’s up to us throughout our years,

to find all of our pieces that fit.

The pieces that connect who we are

To who we were

To who we’ll one day be.

Sometimes pieces will almost fit.

They’ll feel right.

We’ll carry them around for a while,

Hoping they’ll change shape.

Hoping they’ll conform to our puzzle.

But they won’t.

We’ll eventually have to let them go.

To find the puzzle that is their home.

Sometimes pieces won’t fit at all.

No matter how much we want them to.

We’ll shove them.

We’ll bend them.

We’ll break them.

But what isn’t meant to be,

won’t be.

Those are the hardest pieces of all to accept.

The pieces of our puzzle

That just don’t belong.

But occasionally . . .

Not very often at all,

If we’re lucky,

If we pay enough attention,

We’ll find a

perfect match.

The pieces of the puzzle that slide right in

The pieces that hug the contours of our own pieces.

The pieces that lock to us.

The pieces that we lock to.

The pieces that fit so well, we can’t tell where our piece begins

And that piece ends.

Those pieces we call

Friends.

True loves.

Dreams.

Passions.

Beliefs.

Talents.

They’re all the pieces that complete our puzzles.

They line the edges,

Frame the corners,

Those pieces are the pieces that make us who we are.

Who we were.

Who we’ll one day be.

Up until today,

When I looked at my own puzzle,

I would see a finished piece.

I had the edges lined,

The corners framed,

The center filled.

It felt like it was complete.

All the pieces were therespan>.

I had everything I wanted.

Everything I needed.

Everything I dreamt of.

But up until today,

I realized I had collected all

but one piece.

The most vital piece.

The piece that completes the picture.

The piece that completes my whole life.

I held this girl in my arms

She wrapped her tiny fingers around mine.

It was then that I realized

She was the fusion.

The glue.

The cement that bound all my pieces together.

The piece that seals my puzzle.

The piece that completes my life.

The element that makes me who I am.

Who I was.

Who I’ll one day be.

You, baby girl.

You’re my final piece.