to the moon and back

i have never cried while reading a children's book before. the depth of the words, the wonder of what they actually mean in relation to having a child, have never struck me. i have always seen stories as just that. i have read their words to nieces and nephews without much emotion or understanding... without connection.

and that all changed this morning. while reading a story to asher this morning, i couldn't finish the last page, because, as he intently looked at my face, all trust and innocence, i understood what it meant to love a child to the moon and back. and it made me cry. i understood that no matter where life took him, or what it offered, i would love him to my greatest capacity. and perhaps it is this love that allows me to bear the days of ceaseless crying, the hours in the night i wake up to feed him, the years we will struggle with independence and strong wills, the tragedies that will inevitably come his/our way. somehow to the moon and back does not seem so hard to attain.