And on this day she will be wed...

You’re pregnant.

It’s a girl.

She’s healthy; ten fingers, ten toes.

All words that I’ve carried with me for 28 years, actually closer to 29 now.

Life is an epic, amazing journey, filled with surprises, some good, some not, but all of it makes us whole. Like you, you made me whole. Not in that you completed me, but rather you made me change who I thought I was going to be, and who I thought I needed to be. From the minute I peed on the stick that alerted me to the fact that: “YOU’RE PREGNANT.” I knew I would be forever changed. What that change would look like, I had no way of knowing.

You challenged me, you entertained me, and most importantly you grounded me. You, by being born, gave me roots, and you gave them to your father as well.

And now here we are. Today you are no longer Miss. Brianna Bisson, today you are officially, Mrs. Brianna Franklin. When we named you, thanks in large part to your Nana, we had no idea that your name would be more fitting as a married woman than it was as our little girl. Brianna Leigh Franklin, it has a lovely ring to it.

When I look around this room, at all these faces, at the people we love, who love us, who love you, who know you, and know Craig, I have only one thing to say to you Mrs. Brianna Franklin. You made this possible. Because without you, there would be none of this. You were the seed that planted this incredible life that I enjoy, that I love, that I’m blessed to have, and I thank you.

Thank you for choosing a 19 year old who never thought about ever having any of this to be your Momma.

Thank you for being the rock during so many tumultuous times when you really were too little to carry that burden.

Thank you for never losing faith in me, in dad, in “us.”

Thank you for being stoic, for keeping a stiff upper lip, for coming in clutch with a joke, and for “never letting us see you cry.” It is a wish I have that you wouldn’t have had to do that, but such is life, and what is done cannot be undone. So now my new wish for you Mrs. Craig Franklin is that you have now found your rock, your stiff upper lip in Craig, and may you see no shame in breaking down in his arms, and letting him carry the load that you so often chose to carry on your tiny shoulders.

I love you, and although as a mother when you hear the words: “MOM I’VE FOUND MY ONE. MOMMA I’M GETTING MARRIED” as Mom, one is never fully prepared. There’s always that teeny tiny bit of doubt in the corner of a mother’s heart; more to do with not ever wanting to see your daughter with a broken heart. The worry that it “might not work out.” I can tell you after witnessing you and Craig together all these months, I can truthfully say that I will sleep soundly tonight, in full support of your marriage to one another.

I love you B, and I pray that your love affair will be one that your kids tell their friends that they want to have for themselves.

Thanks for picking me beautiful girl, and how fortunate is Craig that you’ve also picked him.

xoxo Momma