Five years ago on this day, just before 6:00 am, a baby boy came into the world and changed my life forever. He had a perfect, round, tiny face, and a beautiful bald head. He didn’t make much noise and I was worried, but he was just taking in his surroundings with a remarkably mature and intelligent disposition. From that very first moment, he was wise beyond his age. He was so perfect and so tiny that I was scared to kiss him or take my eyes off of him for fear I would wake up and have dreamed him. The truth is that I couldn’t have dreamed of such a creature as my Jacob. He is just wonderful; he is smart, insightful, and empathetic. He has a great sense of humor and thirst for knowledge. He understands so much more about the world than I expect him to. He absorbs so much about how those around him feel but have not expressed in words. He picks up on everything that is happening around him and makes connections between ideas that astound me. 

And he’s five. 

For five years he has been my passenger and co-pilot in life. I can’t imagine my life without him, and yet it still seems only yesterday that I heard his first, mewling cry. Wasn’t it yesterday that my mom gave me permission to kiss his face (I was scared about germs) and I dressed him in gowns and watched his skinny legs kick and kick as though I had never seen anything more exciting? No; it was five years ago this morning that his family sat not-so-patiently in the waiting room to hear that he had arrived. Now our lives are full of the vibrancy and light that he brings to his surroundings, and I am so grateful for his sweet presence. He tells me that I teach him everything he needs to know, but he teaches me more each day than I learned in my years of school. 

I love him so.