happy birthday emma jayne

ILYSM

Good morning my sweet girl.

It is your birth day.

A 90 degree scorcher of a New York City day and hard to believe it has been 27 years with you on the planet.

I remember the day that Dr. Levin leaned over my swelling, gonna-be-a-first-time-mom, belly and asked if I wanted to know what I was having. It was less than three years after Grandma Ellen had died. We moved away from New York for Dad’s job, to an unknown land, faraway and in the middle.

I did not think when we moved there it would become your birthplace. That Chicago, in so very many ways, would define who you would become. The first place you would take the stage at Nettelhorst and raise that belty Alto to applause, become Camp Chi and Justin Bieber famous and play out from House of Blues to Uncommon Ground (lots of A Capella, choir and talent shows in between). Knowing you are there today enjoying the haunts and highlights and hotdogs of your hometown roots and rearing with your little sister and loving girlfriend, is music to my heart.

There was something innate, divine, meant to be, all knowing as Dr. Levin asked—I was not sure what to call it at the time. I knew in a world where my Mom was taken from us too soon, that if there was right and good in the world, I would get back the mother daughter relationship I had lost. In some way. And there you were. Beats on a screen, humming the first song you would share with me. Meant to be.

I think of your birthday, as not only a celebration of all that you have become in this whole, wide, world - but what you have taught me. Here are a select few Emma lessons:

Try it. Even if it is scary. You may win the part, contest, money, customers…and the greatest lessons.

Everyone can sing.

Be first. Be last. Come out when you are ready.

The computer will not blow up. Even if you press the wrong code or keys. (Thank you for tech support since ‘99).

Stand up for what you believe in, you alone, can make a difference.

Difficult conversations are worth having.

Dancing and singing in the kitchen is needed and necessary.

Raise your voice and raise money for those who cannot.

Normalize therapy and meds. Vitaligo, OCD, Type1D…loud and proud.

Vulnerability is sexy. Boundaries are boss.

Halloween is a hallowed holiday.

Home is wherever we are together.

“I’m good guys” is the damn truth.

While you are named for the great EJ in the sky, you my dear, Emma, are your very own score. The beat you move to has inspired me beyond motherhood. I birthed a force of nature into this world. You have changed it and me, for the better, in so very many ways.

ILY,

Momzo