I can literally remember the sigh of relief I felt deep in my heart when I was on the operating table and I heard her cry. Even though they took her to NICU and I sent Brian with her - I relaxed. The extremely hard pregnancy was over. She was here. It was worth it all.

What do I love about Salem? Literally everything! But here are some things that definitely make me smile!

1. The way she loves to cuddle when she eats and holds my hand as I hold the bottle. She's a year old - and we still feed in what we call "Bottlefeeding the AP Way".

2. Cosleeping - in the middle of the night I feel her reach out and touch me as if reminding herself that I am there. What's even more precious is when I look and see her reaching out to both of us - perfectly sound asleep. Cosleeping at it's best! :)

3. When I come home from work and she fastly crawls towards me climbing up my legs. She is SO excited to see me! I drop everything to pick her up!

4. When we play peek-a-boo. I put a receiving blanket on my head and say where's mommy where's mommy? And she YANKS it off my head and I say BOO here I am. She about dies laughing!

5. She has a chuckle that is hysterical. If I laugh at something she laughs so I laugh harder cause her laugh is so funny and then she laughs harder. It's a hysterical sight that often goes on for several minutes.

6. When I say No or Stop she stops and looks at me and creases her forward. It's think she's trying to figure out if I really mean no or if she's going to listen. Of course I try not to let her see me smile.

7. When she crawl chases the one cat that will let her touch them!

8. Watching her giggle while she watches The Wiggles!

9. Hearing her growl at her food! LOL. I have NO clue why she does this but if she's really hungry she growls as she eats!

10. I LOVE seeing her smack her lips together when she wants something to drink. It's too cute.

And so much more. What on earth could I have done that enabled me to deserve the love of such a beautiful child? I look forward to her smile when I awake and I can't wait to see her when I get home. I enjoy the fact that my husband loves her just as much and together we are making decisions to love her into adulthood.

I literally can say my life has changed for the better. Life has indeed become more precious and I treasure each and every day, each and every moment.

Thank you God for this blessing. Thank you SO much.