Angel and Beauty

Hello, girls.  We were happy beyond words to finally meet you face to face.

We'd like you to meet some of the other people in this new world of yours.  These are our friends, and we know they will love you too.

Happy birthday, girls.

For your very first birthday present ever, we're giving you the world.

It's a little too big to wrap up, but we've put a bow on it for you.

  - Mom and Dad

I just knew you girls were going to be trouble.

  - Love, Dad.

We're getting your room ready.  For almost a decade, Mom and Dad have had an office upstairs; now, it's going to be a nursery.  Your room.  A place just for the two of you.

To make room for you, the office had to move downstairs.  This was something of a chore - there's been stuff to pack up, furniture to haul downstairs, equipment to disconnect and reconnect, and lots and lots of boxes to move from one place to another.  Fortunately, we've had a lot of help.  Gunter Uncle Chris came up from Florida for the weekend just to lend a hand (he also brought you some clothes and toys).  More Gunters came over on Saturday to help out: Uncle J and Aunt Lisanne, and Uncle Kenn and Aunt Amanda, and also Suzy and Phillip and Pete and Sherry.  And all the kids, too: Daniel and Rachel and Maggie and Ellie and Thomas and Karen and Elizabeth and Stephen.  When we weren't moving boxes and furniture, Mom stayed busy socializing with our friends while Dad had fun in the kitchen cooking up a pile of steaks and wings for the crowd.  Everyone had a great time, and we even got to play Guitar Hero and Rock Band.

It was a wonderful, wonderful day.  Good hard work, good playtime, good food, and good friends.

Mom and Dad have been lucky to have such good friends in our lives, and so many of them.  From the day you two are born, your lives will be filled with people who love you: your close family, your extended family, Mom and Dad's friends, and their families.  And as you grow up, you too will make new friends, just like Mom and Dad did when they were growing up.

Treasure your friends.  Welcome their love, and love them back.  Friends are a source of endless joy.

Mom's been feeling you two move for several weeks now.  Dad got to feel you move for the first time last night.

We can't wait to hold you in our arms.

Hi, girls.

Love you,

  - Mom and Dad

We are the Maise family, and we are Virtuous, Healthy, Active, Social, Literate, Aware, Inquisitive, Creative, Trustworthy, Responsible, Free, Ambitious, Joyful, and Loving. We love our family, our friends, ourselves, and everyone.

Our Family Virtues

The First Virtue is Virtue itself - knowing that some things are good and bad, striving to understand what they are, and choosing to do only that which is good.

The Second Virtue is Health - keeping your body, mind, and life in good condition, ready for anything and fit for everything.

The Third Virtue is Activity - using your body, mind, and life to do things worth doing.

The Fourth Virtue is Sociality - finding fellowship and joy in the company of other people.

The Fifth Virtue is Literacy - knowing much about many things and being able to learn anything about everything.

The Sixth Virtue is Awareness - paying attention to and understanding the world around you and your own self.

The Seventh Virtue is Inquisitiveness - wanting to learn, wanting to know, wanting to understand, and wondering why.

The Eighth Virtue is Creativity - making something from nothing; being original and different and new.

The Ninth Virtue is Trustworthiness - being honest, keeping promises, and fulfilling commitments.

The Tenth Virtue is Responsibility - understanding that your choices have consequences and accepting the obligations your choices create.

The Eleventh Virtue is Freedom - knowing that all your choices are your own to make.

The Twelfth Virtue is Ambition - choosing goals that mean the most to you and pursuing them to your full potential.

The Thirteenth Virtue is Joy - finding happiness all around you in everything you do.

The Last Virtue, and greatest of them all, is Love - knowing joy by bringing joy to others.

---

We promise you, our children, that we will uphold these virtues, that we will show them to you in the way we raise our family and the way we live our lives, that we will help you understand them while you create your own lives, and that as you come to embrace them and make them your own, we will be there with you - always.

Mom and Dad

Hello, children.  This is Mom and Dad.

We love you more than life itself.  We always have, from the very beginning.  And we always will.

Right now, as we're waiting for you to be born, we're thinking ahead to the coming months and years and to the lifetime we'll have together as a family.  We don't know what's coming.  We have hopes and dreams and wild imaginings of the future, but we know that we don't really know.

But we can't wait to find out.

Together.

It will be the adventure of our lives.

The one thing we do know, though, is that we love you.  We always have, and we always will.

Mom and Dad