I've posted it a couple times already, but every time I scan through my photo library, I stop at this one and smile for a while. I think of what has been, and is and might be. I think of this little girl's mommy, and her mom and my mom, and me, and who might one day call me "mommy" and this tiny little face "friend." I've been resisting the urge all morning to write about my friends.

Why, I'm not sure. Perhaps because I know I've written most of it before, perhaps because I'm afraid to make what's most special to me seem old to you. But it is old. It's as old as anything in my life, in my heart. And that's the best part. It still invades my thoughts and overcomes me. I love these people. I love this little girl. I love her mom. And as I'm surveying the past and posturing for the future, I just keep thinking how grateful I am for the friends and family that walk beside me. And for the new stories this little girl will one day tell, and the stories that have yet to be and become her parents "old tales". I can't wait to tell her stories about her mom and me and E.T.