She is here.

Baby Tirsit

Our little girl has arrived, and the world is already a little more beautiful for it.

27 Meskerem 2019

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Her story

The day you arrived

For nine months you were a heartbeat on a monitor, a flutter under my hand, a name we said out loud just to hear how it sounded. We wondered who you would be. We wondered if we were ready.

and then, there you were.

The first cry

3:10 in the morning

The room went still for one long second. Then you filled it. I have never been so glad to hear someone cry.
The first look

3:13 in the morning

You opened your eyes and studied us, very seriously, as if checking that we were the right people. We are still hoping we passed.
The first hold

3:18 in the morning

Your aunt Ribka was the first to hold you. She gathered you up before any of us could, and from your very first minute you were safe in her arms.
The first “I love you”

3:19 in the morning

We said it at the same moment, both of us whispering, as though it were a secret. It isn't. You will hear it every day.

Her first arms

Ribka W/Giorgis

Her aunt · the first to hold her

Before any of us could, you gathered her up and welcomed her into the world. The first arms she ever knew were yours, and she will grow up hearing about it. Thank you, Ribka, from all of us.

With love and gratitude

Introducing

Baby Tirsit

Born: 27 Meskerem 2019 E.C.
At: 3:10 morning
Weight: 2.7 kg
Length: 50 cm

Small enough to hold in our arms. Big enough to change our entire world.

Abebe and Tirsit with the little one at the hospital — together, day one

For her mother

To the woman who made her possible.

Tirsit,

I have watched you do a lot of brave things. Nothing has come close to this.

For nine months you carried her quietly: the sleepless nights, the aching back, the worries you kept small so that I wouldn't have to carry them too. You knew her long before the rest of us did.

And when the time came, you were stronger than I knew a person could be.

I held your hand. You did everything else.

Then they laid her on your chest, and I watched you become her mother in a single breath.

Thank you for her. Thank you for all of it. I thought I already loved you as much as a person could. I was wrong.

Always yours,Abebe

A letter

For you, my daughter.

Your first week

My girl,

You are asleep on my chest as I write this, making small sounds I am already learning to understand.

I don't know who you will become, and that is the best part. You might be loud or quiet, careful or fearless, a reader, a climber, a teller of terrible jokes like your father. Whoever you turn out to be will be exactly right.

There are a few things I can promise. I will learn the names of your friends and the words to your favourite songs, even the ones I don't like. I will be wrong sometimes, and I will say so. And when the world is hard, as it sometimes will be, there will always be a place where you are safe. It's here. It's us.

One more thing: watch your mother. Watch how she loves, how she keeps going, how she makes every room warmer just by being in it. If you grow up to be even a little like her, you will be extraordinary.

You have been here only a few days, and already I can't remember what the world looked like without you.

I love you. I'll tell you every day, until you roll your eyes, and then a little more.