IMPRINTS 👣🤚🏼

Happy Birthday, Michael! Although we never have a shortage of family ‘selfies’, it was these two very separate and distinct monumental moments that pulled at my heartstrings while I was browsing for a picture that best depicted YOU.  It was reflecting on these two emotional days of saying ‘hello’ to our daughter and ‘goodbye’ to our son, that I better realized one of your very unique abilities.  My Michael; the only person I know who can ‘imprint’ so heavily upon other lives without needing to apply any ‘pressure’. 

Yep, that’s you. Confident, yet humble. Steady, yet gentle. Reserved, yet true.  Just as you delicately stamped MacKenna’s footprint on the back of your hand, I’ve seen you also replicate her same calculated, yet compassionate mannerisms, leaving others feeling ‘hugged’ without touching them at all.  And just as you gingerly pressed Theodore’s hand into the clay mold that now sits on our mantel, I’ve seen you also duplicate his same modest recognition of self strength, never begging for attention, while always uplifting others first.  I hope you understand, the way you ‘imprint’ on us is more special than what we can physically see; it’s all about how loved you make us feel.  It’s like magic; all your small ‘subtle ways’ end up creating this enormous impact in our lives. 

Unlike deep footprints along the shoreline that eventually wash away, the permanent imprints you have already left on this earth within your 34 years will last far beyond our existence.  The imprints you continue to make stand the test of time because the beautiful ‘mark’ you actually leave is not surface-level, but etched deeply into many hearts.  And you, Michael, have given my heart a whole new shape; you began imprinting your ‘masterpiece’ upon my heart from our very first ‘hello’.  Happy Birthday. I love you. 

Alexandria

… join me by #FallingRightSideUp 

when life gets turned upside down

Psalm 46:5