From NICU to Graduation
When your survival baby is ready to leave home
The door has flung open. One step forward, one is waiting for a possible retreat.
I hold my breath, clench my chest, and close my eyes. A yell, cry, unspoken breakdown still left to decide.
Only now, I see from the path behind to the very one beneath you. When once you lay in safety within the walls my womb provided, too brief to build eternal armor, you had to leave as a guarded fighter.
Tubes, wires, and air to breathe. Transformed how long your story could be.
I gathered you up and embraced you whole. Always knowing, you are right here. Our Love Hold will never let go.
Walking away, being apart, or leaving this World, we shall still remain “we.” Mama and Me.
For the path you take, and the story you tell is but yours alone. The distance you travel will never measure how far you’ve come, but how wide your heart opened and the length of your reach will always move your path forward. Those you serve give Hope to Life and Purpose to Pain.
As I open my eyes with a calmed peaceful breath and soft smile, you take that next step with strength in your stride.
The door closes no more as your Home grows beyond with footprints forever to lead your return.
My Goodbye is not a farewell. No thought or prayer exists without you held, in that same embrace from infant to elder, I’ll never let go.
From here in my arms to the final call Home to our Heavenly Father Above. “We.”
Mama and Me.
If you liked this poem, please check out one of my other articles.
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