Dear Tiny,
Compared to the others who will write to you, I know your family only a very little bit. What’s more, I live far away in California, so I probably won’t meet you for a long time. Still, I wanted to tell you how excited I am for you that you have such great parents. They are cheerful and smart and generous and kind. They can’t wait to meet you. You are lucky.
I met your parents about a year ago at camp for grown-ups. There were a lot of people there and I didn’t really know anybody and I was by myself. That can be kind of scary. Your parents had only just gotten married, and they could have been perfectly happy together not talking to anyone else. But you know what? They didn’t make their happiness a secret clubhouse to hide in; they made their happiness an open door and they invited everyone in. If they saw someone standing around, they introduced themselves and they were so nice that each new person felt like she was already their friend.
A couple days later, I told your mother how much I had appreciated her kindness when I was feeling shy and you know what she said? “Oh, we decided before we came that since there were two of us, we needed to be twice as friendly.”
Because you are new to the world, you do not yet know how extraordinary that statement is, but, someday, I think you will smile and be proud.
Now there will be THREE of you, so there’s going to be a whole lot of friendliness wherever your family goes together. I expect it will bring all kinds of great people into your life. I hope all of you have a wonderful adventure.
Love,
Kari
