Have you ever laid your head on your child’s chest and listened to their heart beat?

Tonight, as I responded to Charley’s cries (and returned to the bedroom for the thirteenth time), I did just that. It took me a bit longer to get to her this time, so by the time I reached her, she was quite upset.

I laid down next to her, snuggled her, and put my ear against her chest.

I don’t think I had ever done that until tonight.

The last time I listened to her heart, it resounded through a machine strapped to my belly. She was still wrapped up inside me, growing, waiting to make her debut. She was still a mystery.

Amazing though… she may have been a mystery, but she was still a person. The beautiful heart beating then was the same one I heard tonight. It’s the heart that will beat until she takes her last breath (Lord willing a lifetime from now).

My beautiful Charley.

She may have been tiny, but she was Charley then just as much as she’s Charley now.

As I laid my head on her chest tonight, I could hear the rapid thump thump thump of that beautiful heart gradually slow as she melted into the presence of her momma and finally drifted off to sleep.

Every child deserves to be loved as much as I love my Charley.

Every beating heart deserves to experience the passionate love of a mother.

Whether a group of cells that will soon begin simultaneously pulsing together, a newly formed heart heard for the first time at 8 weeks gestation, the rapidly beating heart of a tiny newborn baby, or the heart that has been beating for a lifetime and eventually slows to a peaceful stop…

Each heart beats by the grace of God, our Creator and Father, whose love exceeds even the most loving mother from whose eyes drip grateful tears at the sound of her baby’s beating heart.

#youareloved #chooselife #Hedidforyou