The Family of Parenthood

There's this little girl I've never met but I feel like I've known her all along. Her name is Maddie and I read her Mom's blog. When I became a mom this strange thing happened. All of a sudden children took on a whole new meaning. When I see a little boy scared at the doctor's office my heart goes out to him. When I see a toddler about to crawl out of the cart at the store my heart jumps as I quickly alert their mom or dad. When I see a little girl look at Santa at the mall with amazement in her eyes I can't help but smile. Their little faces are so expressive and innocent. No false pretenses. So when I first visited The Spohrs are Multiplying I easily fell in love with Maddie. Her whole face smiled, her eyes crinkled and the happiness was contagious. You could just tell this little girl was spirited so I quickly bookmarked the site. I enjoyed catching up on Maddie's activities and her photos always made me smile (it doesn't hurt that her mom is all kinds of funny but the real star was Maddie.) I hated to hear that she wasn't feeling well and was concerned when she had to go to the hospital. My husband had lung problems when he was young so I mentioned her condition to him last night as we gave our toddler a bath. As I nursed my newborn in the middle of the night I clicked around to various sites as I always do to pass the time. I was excited to see there was an update on Maddie but when the page loaded my heart immediately broke. I hugged my son close to me and cried. The world has lost such a beautiful little person and it doesn't seem right. Please support her parents by donating to their March of Dimes walk on my sidebar in Maddie's memory.