On November 30, 2013 my perspective on love, and happiness was completely changed. I got to stand by and hold my sister’s hand during her labor and delivery; and was the second one to hold my newborn niece and welcome her into this crazy world. I never knew how much love I could have for one tiny person, until the moment I held that precious baby girl in my arms for the very first time.

Two days after my niece was born, I took care of her for four hours by myself, was I scared? No I was not. I loved this little girl so much that I treated her as if she were my own. Being able to take care of my niece three out of five days of the week for the first 2 months of her life was incredible. Actually incredible was an understatement. The fact I was trusted to take care of this tiny life and spend as much time with her as I did seemed to make all of lifes problems just fade away. So, no it wasn’t always easy, but it was definitely worth it. Spending each day with her, watching her grow, and teaching her new things, developed a strong bond between my beautiful niece and I.

I can’t even begin to explain how grateful I am to be the Aunnie to such a precious baby girl. Being able to watch her grow, learn how to talk, learn to crawl, try to walk, learn to talk and express what she wants, develop her own little personality, and most of all to be there by her side through everything is just so amazing. The bond we have is unbreakable, and I wouldn’t change it for the world. It’s so amazing seeing how even tiny babies can grow to know who certain people are. As each day passed by, it was obvious that Alayna knew that I was her aunnie, she would smile and laugh whenever she would hear me talk to her. Shes grab my face with both hands when I played with her, she would just wrap her arms around me and fall asleep, it was just obvious that she knew who her aunnie was and that she loved her aunnie very much which made me so proud and is such an amazing feeling.

Now, my beautiful niece is almost a year old, and I don’t get to see her as often, but even though I don’t get to see her as much, our bond is still just as strong. Not only that, but she is continuing to grow into the sweet little girl, with the bubbly personality that I always thought she would be which makes me even more proud and makes me want to show this beautiful girl off to the world. I love babies and children so much as it is, but when there is a child that you get to help teach things to, help her grow into the sweet little girl that she should be, and even buy her things that she needs or even just wants makes me loves children ten times more.

With alll that being said, as I said to begin with, I never knew how much love I could have for one tiny person until I held my niece in my arms for the very first time, and with that love being like that, I can’t even begin to imagine how much love I’ll have for my own kids.