She is my oldest child. She is my heart walking outside of my body. She is my first experience of selfless love. I was her first home and she was my first resident. She is the oldest of my three children. She has taught me more than I could ever teach her.
My darling girl and her loving husband Don have given me two of the most incredible human beings ever; sweet Josephine and darling Domenic. Domenic was born this year on A.J.’s birthday, needless to say Jacquie is quite thrilled about that. Like all of our kids Angelique is a total split of me and Wahid. She is most like me in that she totally is not judgmental.
I know you want to meet Angelique and I couldn’t blame you.
http://circlingmyhead.blogspot.com/2008/12/regarding-angelique.html
She is the oldest of my children, my heart walking outside of my body, my first lesson that I could love someone better than myself. Angelique thank you for the privilege.
Happy Birthday Angelique. Love Mom, Dad, Nadalene, Nathan, Josephine, and Domenic.
*artwork by Kelly Vivanco
71 comments:
Happy Birthday, Angelique, and many more.
I love how you write, Renee,
xoxo
I love your birthday tributes to your family.
"She is my heart walking outside of my body." I developed a theory that when a woman gets pregnant a piece of her heart detaches and forms the baby's heart. All is well, until you give birth and then after that you have a piece of your heart out there in the world. Okay, it isn't biologically sound but it fits, doesn't it?
Happy Birthday, dear Angelique! You have such a way with words, Renee, and this is such a touching tribute to your daughter! Wishing her and you all the best! Love, Silke
Happy Birthday, Angelique!! I love this tribute to your firstborn, Renee. She is a marvel, like every one of you. And I know exactly what you mean about being surprised by how much you can love your child. And it never stops, they are your child, and there aren't enough words in the universe to tell them how much you love them. Angelique is exactly the kind of person I wish I had had for a teacher: curious, kind and smart. Have a wonderful day, Angelique! xoxo Pam
Happy Birthday Angelique!!
Renee, this is a beautiful post, written by a most wonderful Mother!!
Enjoy the day celebrating with your dear ones ♥
Love, Darla
It's amazing isn't it how our hearts always expand to enfold people we begin to love. Love is infinite and there is always more than enough to go around from hearts that are open to it. We never have to portion it out - it's there like a bottomless well. When our children grow up to understand that, I believe we can feel that our job has been well done. Angelique seems to have learned that at an early age. Congratulations, Renee. Hugs.
Happy Birthday Ang - have a great day! xoxo
Happy Birthday Angelique! I am sure she will cherish this tribute forever, beautiful.
(((HUGS)))
Happy Happy Birthday! Beautiful post.
that is the most beautiful compliment a mother could give her daughter and it gave me a wonderful little chill. i was just griping at my little ones for not putting on their tights for this 14 degree weather and i'm going to drop the attitude right now and go give them huge hugs.
this was brilliant. i hope angelique has a marvelous birthday.
Oh Renee this is beautiful! I love your family tributes. If she is your heart walking outside your body then I know she must be beautiful!
Happy Birthday Angeligue.
Stop by my place for a new year's wish and a very funny story.
xo-jj
Happy Birthday, Angelique! Have a wonderful day, and year. You are lucky to have a heart like your mom's, it is a big as the universe.
xoxo
Happy birthday, Angelique...you have the most wonderful mother!
Happy birthday Angelique, you are both so blessed to have each other :)
Renee,sometimes you get me right in the gut,punch,punch,I felt it.."my heart walking outside my body"...I felt it,and I am grateful.
Sweet Angelique,Happy Birthday to you.Warmest Regards,Cat
happy birthday angelique
hope you have a day of purely bieng spoiled...which i am sure is what you will get...love you
aj
Happy Happy Birthday, Angelique!!!
Happy Birthing Day, Renee! It's a match made in Heaven. Isn't it simply miraculous to give birth to your own best friend. Happy New Year, Renee. **blows festive, happy, hopeful kisses** Deb
A special Blue Moon tonight celebrates your darling Angelique! Happy Birthday to her and Happy Birth Day to you!
Thank you, dear Renee, for your wonderful heartfelt posts of 2009 and especially the sharing of your daughter Angelique's story! But she would have to be fabulous since you are her mother and she is your heart! Blessings to you both as the new year approaches. Thank you for so deeply enriching my life! Hugs, Coralie
happy birthday ang! enjoy your special day!
love,
natalie
Another beautiful tribute. You are such an awesome writer, and I love reading your posts.
Happy New Year to all of you, my bloggy friend. Hope it's a much better one than the one you're about to ring out.
I do know just what you mean. Happy Birthday to your baby and to you dear Mama. What a special day!
Happy Birthday Angelique. Renee, what a great tribute to your daughter. Love, Barb
Ah Renee, had Charlotte survived I'd have perhaps experienced this too. You describe it perfectly.
I held my niece Kate when she was less than 2 hours old. I saw her most days. Because of an illness (of my sis), I looked after Kate for nearly 3 yrs from age 8. She sometimes calls me her second mummy.
So when you describe your heart walking outside youself ... yes ... I almost get it. But not quite.
Being a mother is a gift Renee. Being a loving parent is a gift you bestow. And you did ... just ask Angelique.
xx Jos
Wishing a very Happy Birthday to Angelique! Wishing you and your whole family a very Happy New Year!
What am I thinking? Sorry Renee. I wish you and everyone you love a very Happy New Year!!!!!
What do I wish for? So much. Maybe too much. And yet I pray. For you, Daisy, Jacquie, others (too many to list). I love you too Renee.
Love heals. Tomorrow I'll walk to Stonehenge. I will pray under open skies, as promised. Please tell your mom. I know it means so much to her. (Well, only because you told me so). How can I ever thank you? xx Jos
oh renee.....
i left a comment on angelinque's first post, just one year ago. i think it was the first post of yours i had ever read. i remember i saw your "love renee" on laurel's blog and she told me to come meet you. i remember so clearly how much you loved, how easily to shared that love.
sometimes i say i cry reading something when i don't mean it literally. but this tribute to angelique--this description of who she is, of how much her mother loves her--i'm crying on my keyboard.
how much room is there for all the love that comes from and surrounds you?
angelique, it's nothing you don't know already, but your mother is special beyond description. her love for you gives you all that too. happy birthday, dear girl. i feel like i know you, and i in some ways i know how you feel.
love
kj
Renee, that could just as easily apply too my first born as well.
Happy Birthday indeed Angelique.
renee, what a beautiful way to put it...it's all in that first paragraph. Wow!! It knocked my socks off.
Happiest of birthdays sweet Angelique! How lucky for both of you that you share this deep love.
Something like this comes around once in a blue moon ;)
So look at the sky tonight. It's celebrating you both!
xoxoxo
lolo
"...she is my heart walking outside of my body."
Oh, how I love the way you put that and it's just the way I feel about mine, too.
Happy Birthday, Angelique! Many, many more to come.
xox B
Ps.- Renee, Christmas with my grandson and children was beautiful. (see above quote--quite accurate. :p))
She sounds as beautiful as her name. I read your words on your daughter and they made me mysty eyed. You are such a poet my friend. Sending you love and good wishes for the New Year from the Florida Keys.
ohhh, renee, that first paragraph. ohhh.
yes, happy birthday to your walking heart.
xo
erin
Lovely post Renee as always. You constantly write from your heart and that is what I love about you.
I am so glad you loved your "We Treasure You" chest...It was my pleasure to contribute to this and I am thrilled it made you so happy!
Love and Happy New Year,
LuLu~*xoxo
I'll be sending kisses back ;)
It's snowing here. Big, beautiful flakes to welcome all good things in the new year.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
and xo!
Happy Birthday to your sweet Angelique!! :)
I just love how you put this! Wonderfully written..I love how she was your first resident ..beautiful hon!
Hope you enjoy the magical blue moon and your New Year!
Love you my dear friend, Sarah
Oh Renee! Your words sent chills down my spine. They are so beautiful.
Happy Birthday Angelique!!! You and I share the most beautiful name in the world! Blessings upon you on this next chapter of your life, and upon your sweet, gorgeous children. And may 2010 bring you peace, love, health and happiness.
And for you Renee, I wish I could hand you a healthy, pain-free 2010 on a plate. Yet, all I can do is pray. I will do that every day, my dear friend, for one of my greatest joys this year is connecting with you. A
Happy happy happy birthday, dearest Angelique! You are such a beautiful and brilliant light. I had tears in my eyes reading your mother's tribute to you. The love was that palpable. I know you feel it, too.
Love to you all.
xoxo
Happy Birthday Angelique! You have the best mama in the whole world!
This is fabulous Renee, I know their faces after painting them and feel so much heart towards them as you write about them. You write such wonderful posts. Your heart Angelique. I have her here holding Domenic in her arms. Josephine holding her arms up to you holding a heart!
I agree, they are beautiful!
Thank you for sharing your love for them!
Oh, I like Flors painting of you all too. So cute!
Happy birthday Angelique!
happy boifday, i wish i had had a mom who loved me even half as much as you love her. happy 2010 to you all.
wordveri: expert
Sending you love Renee! May you have a healthy and safe existence in 2010. Thank you for being one of my most beloved readers and filling my heart with so much love and support.
Renee, I wish you a very Happy New Year and also a Happy Birthday to your precious Angelique. I can feel your deep love for her though your words. Much love and blessings, precious friend!!! xoxoxo
What do you wish a person who has already the most valuable gift? Love? but that is the most valuable gift and she is loved by her mother in ways that most of us could only wish for.
So I will wish you the happiest of birthdays Angelique. A new year with plenty to share and to give, with love in abundance and joy to deliver it. With good health and laughter and to spend it with those who love you so much because you are their gift to your children.
And to you my darling dearest Renee, I wish you the same in this New Year's Eve. We shall see the end of this nasty road and look back and say to each other with a big smile Life After Life Forever. We earn it.
"She is the oldest of my children, my heart walking outside of my body, my first lesson that I could love someone better than myself"
I LOVE this statement! So eloquently beautiful!
Happy Birthday Angelique! I know you are one very special young lady because your mom, and what I have read of your dad, are two of the most special parents in the world.
xxoo
Happy Birthday Angelique! You truly have turned out to be an incredible individual. A sweet, honest,compassionate young women.
I couldn't love you more. Have a GREAT BIRTHDAY Ang!
Renee you words are such a beautiful sonnet to your girl...and to all our girls...thank you...and I hope Angelique has a fabulous day!
Happy Birthday Angelique. You're so lucky to have a wonderful mom like Renee. I'm sure you know that already. :)
You love so well. Not everyone can you know? It can be learned, but there is an element of falsity that breeds discomfort. Happy 'Nother Year Angelique! Happy New Year Renee.
Beautiful thoughts, Renee. I wish you 365 days of happiness. Let each day be the first and the last - enjoy it, cherish it and be glad. That is the best way to live once you have known the fragility of living.
Happy Birhtday Angelique...you are so lucky to have Renne as a mom.
Happy New Year!
Wishing you the BEST!
Flor
Blessings and joy to Angelique this birthday and new year's eve!! and i'm wishing you only and all the best for the new year and always me friend.
i love you so, karin
Happy Birthday Angelique~~~~
Your mom Renee just loves you to pieces ~: )
Happy New Year to you my dearest friend... the friend that I am most happy to have found in 2009!
I love you Rene....
oxoox Pattee
Happy Birthday Angelique and may your best of the best wishes come true...
I know you are beautiful because your Mum is :)
and I think I know what you are wishing for and I wish for it too.
xoxoxo
Renee, I hope for you and your family a blessed New Year. (And if it's not, you call me, I'll set it right!)
Happy Birthday Angelique!!!! Happy New Year my Lovey...xoxoxoxoxoxo
Happy Birthday Angelique!
Thinking of you this evening during you Birthday Celebration with your Mom, Dad & family!
Love Sally
xoxoxo
Happy Birthday to Angelique. How blessed are both of you. You to have a daughter like Angelique and she to have you for her mother!
Oh Renee...you are one most unique heart...your words about your Angelique brought tears to my eyes...Your words are something so wondrous...I love your words...
I wish you many many more words in 2010.
XOXOrly
Renee - I actually stayed up past midnight! I am wishing you a year of happiness and peace. Much love to you, my friend - xoxoxo Pam
Dear Renee,
Wishing Angelique the happiest of birthdays.
I love the darling Shoo bats painting Bella gave you.
Wishing you and your family the very best wishes for 2010.
Hugs
Carolyn
Thank you for all your fabulous and inspirational posts in 2009 and my best wishes for 2010.
And a belated Happy Birthday to your lovely daughter.
Mad x
Happy birthday to Angelique!! I'm sure she is just as wonderful as you!!
Happy New Year to my amazing, funny, fiesty, loving, caring, and so much more.... fellow Canadian sisterfriend!!
I love you Renee!!
manon
xo
p.s..... We have ice, snow and cold here in Ohio. Not a good mix for that sisterfriend down In Texas. lol
Thank you for the privilege and honor Mom.
And thanks to everyone for the bday wishes. You have no idea how lucky and fortunate I am to have such a wonderful Mom.
The problem with your huge family is there's a birthday every month! At least you won't be short of blog fodder. She sounds like a gem. I know what you mean about splits and hearts, I have one just like her. Of course it's maternal influence and nurture that makes her such a fantastic kid. Many happy returns to Angelique!
Renee,
I am not going through any sort of treatment per se. I take a regimen of pills that treat different things. When one thing starts to get worse then the doctors usually give me more pills. I have two blogs, I write about my illness in the other blog which can be reached from my sidebar. It is called the The Paradox Syndrome. All in all my health has not been so bad. I have not had to be hospitalized yet and I figure that's a good thing. I struggle from day to day with 2 different things the most, exhaustion and nausea. I am also very sore because I am losing my muscle mass.
Please stop by and visit my other blog if you haven't already.
Again I wish you a peaceful year.
I read the original post and it is beautiful, as is Angelique and her wonderful mother. Happy Birthday lucky lady.
Renee!
Kelly's artwork looks amazing! Where can I see more of it?
-Dean
Happy birthday to your beautiful Angelique!
)O(
boo
Sorry for being late, but Happy Birthday Angelique!!!
May it be all you wish. May the angels listen to what you want and find a way to give you that and so much more.
"I was her first home and she was my first resident."
Tears, Renee. This is just beautful. So well stated.
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