116 days. That’s how long it took for your 1 lb. 9 oz. body, born at just 24 weeks, to grow to 7 lbs. 11 oz. and show the doctors what we had known all along: you are here on purpose-and our God is strong enough to make sure you endure. 116 days. 116 days in the NICU to show what we already knew about you, Baby M: There are no heights you can’t reach. No paths you can’t walk. No dreams you can’t have. No worlds you can’t enter. There is nothing you can’t do. 116 days. 116 days of falling deeper in love with your father @kidnoble and being grateful for our village, who fed us, clothed us, laughed with us, and most critically, covered us in righteous prayers that availed much, as evidenced by you still being here—and stronger than ever. 116 days. 116 days of seeking God’s word and holding fast to His promises and remembering always that they are yea and amen. Of crying with fear and singing with praise and living every emotion in between on those daily treks to and from your bedside. Of seeing just how Big God is. Of how secure we can be in His character. Knowing all that could go wrong-but learning to feel secure in all that could go right. That did go right. 116 days. 116 days of quietly learning and relearning this mind and this body of mine as a mother. Watching it perform miracles through milk and tap into ancestral knowing and giving instinctive fight when I had no idea it was this strong. Feeling the Black mothers before me well up inside of me to care for and cover you. 116 days. 116 days of me getting so much clearer about who I am and what matters because I get to hold your hand. Of me tapping out of the public life and the need to show and tell and realize, I quite like it here in this safe, secret place with God and you. 116 days. For you to come home. So for the next 116 months and many, many more, I thank you, little one, for making me a mama. I can’t believe I get to do life with you. Now more than ever, let’s go get free. My hero. Baby M. Born December. And Finally Home. (alt: surprise! I had a baby. A perfect baby ❤️. An R&B remix...if you will 🙃. And check the date of that tweet. I knew what I was talmbout.)