She’s 21 today.
When I found out that I was pregnant with Traci, we had just moved our large, young family from Brooklyn to Fishkill.
We had literally moved our 5 children (ages 10,7,3,3 and 1) the week before Christmas and somehow managed to unpack, decorate and put gifts under the tree for all of the kids and celebrate an exhausting but amazing Christmas.
I was still trying to commute to NYC for three 10 hour days a week for work.
We had spent a year looking for a place to live and running up against the most absurd obstacles in trying to find a two family house or two houses close together so that my sister-in-law and I could provide childcare for one another (8 kids combined before Traci) on our respective ‘days off’.
Just as we began to settle into our new chaos, I found out I was expecting again.
Needless to say, I was more than just a little overwhelmed.
I couldn’t imagine why God would have allowed this to happen to us.
This is a video and picture of Traci dancing in her final solo dance performance last year, which she choreographed herself.
The pinnacle performance and product of the dance classes we could never afford but knew we had to and always somehow managed to.
The song is “Shake it Out” by Florence + The Machine.
The picture is the instant where the lyrics boom – “It’s always darkest before the dawn!”
Anyone who knows Traci, knows that she is a walking, talking contradiction.
She’s a beautiful nut, a brilliant scatterbrain, and a most graceful klutz.
She is also the personification of my fear and the fulfillment of my hope.
Hope wins.
All good things do.
God is good. 💖
Happy Birthday Traci.
I love you.
Anne On The Issues 