Right in the middle of our deepest love, you came—just between us. A silent, unseen surprise. A mysterious miracle of incarnated love and joy. From that sacred moment that we couldn’t imagine being any sweeter, came you.

Sometime in the middle of all the daily goodbye hugs, my stomach began to grow and you came between us. This beautiful bundle of life blossoming right inside of me. And we were in awe of every single tiny formation of you. In awe of who you were, excited by who you’d be, in awe that you were ours. You came between us and pulled us closer together each time we felt your little foot kick or heard your tiny heartbeat.

And then our happiest shared moment finally arrived—all wrapped and swaddled up and gifted to us. Our pure bundle of bursting joy. Ours. Right between us. You.

In the middle of the night with cries for milk and then scary bad dreams as you grew, you curled into bed, all warm and safe, right between us.

In the middle of morning kisses in the kitchen, you’d slip in between us—all sandwiched and safe and loved. What better place could there be than wrapped in our love?

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You came between our selfishness—moments when we were both too tired and didn’t have the energy to change another diaper, wipe another spill, soothe another heartache. You came between our long-held beliefs and opinions about the “right way” to raise you. You came between us and our own childhood memories as we were faced with a little reflection of ourselves when we looked into your eyes.

You came between us during date night conversations when we tried so hard to set everything aside and just focus on each other. But all we could talk about was your infectious laugh, or the way you looked when you slept, your challenges with friends or school or sports . . . always at the tips of our mind, coming between us.

During some busy seasons, it seemed we didn’t have much in common, but we always had you in common. We always lit up at the thought of you.

We read books and heard messages about not letting you come between us too much. And we did have to be intentional about focusing on just us. But what we didn’t hear as much of was how just wholeheartedly loving and knowing you together could deepen our love so much for each other. Maybe God decided to create you out of our love and gift your life to us not to bring distance, but to unite and expand His love more and more. Because since the moment we first found out about you, we learned that love grows. And you see, you’re a treasure, our treasured gift.

Somewhere along the way, we realized that treasuring you so deeply never had to mean cherishing each other less. Mutually valuing someone placed right in between us could ultimately draw us closer together if we let it. What sweeter bond could we share in this life than the mutual joy of having the very fruit of our bond right there with us? What better mutual goal or interest could we have than loving and raising you together?

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One day we’ll let you go. And I imagine there will be quite an aching hole with something so precious missing between us. But I also believe the love that was planted by your presence can continue to blossom and unite us together as we watch you soar from a distance.

One day there will be plenty of space just for two again. And I imagine that, even as we venture into new things as a couple and grow in new ways, we’ll still often find ourselves coming back to conversations about you and how you used to nestle between us in bed or come and dance in between our legs in the living room. And I imagine we’ll laugh at all the little quirks and inside jokes that only our family knows. And we’ll miss those days while treasuring the memories and the grown, fully independent person you will be.

Because we have shared many adventures together . . . but you coming between us? Well, that is the most amazing adventure of all.