A letter to my First

I used to roll my eyes when people said motherhood would make me whole, as if I had been moving through life incomplete, some quiet part of me missing. When I met you, I was already full in so many ways. I had accomplished things I was proud of, and I still carried dreams I hadn’t yet reached.

What I didn’t expect was how gently, how easily, I would loosen my hold on the life I knew.

Pieces of who I was before began to soften and shift, not out of loss, but out of love.

It felt as natural as breathing to turn down opportunities, to choose being home and be present with you.

To trade old rhythms for quiet moments spent reading beside you, helping you discover your own.

It never felt like a sacrifice. Just a quiet, certain knowing that I could let go of who I had been, even as whole as I once felt.

All for you. You changed the shape of my days, the direction of my life, and every version of my future.

& I would choose it every time for you. My love, my sunshine, my kuya.