I knew you would change my life even before I knew you were going to become a part of it. There were moments I doubted, true. But there was never a time I regretted.

I realise now that before you, I never knew what it was to love. I would often gaze up at the stars and wonder about the meaning of life, god, the universe. Me.

And then I saw you. You touched me on that first day in the isolated corner of a dirty government hospital and my soul started dancing. Each time I look at you, it still does.

I couldn’t take my eyes off you. You were so precious. You were me and in your cries I became you. Something awoke in me that day.

When you were sore, I hurt with you, all the while wishing I could hurt for you. When you laughed, I laughed with you – on most days when I was not able, I knew you wished you could laugh for me.

No matter how many times in a day you saw me, it was as if for the first time. Your tiny hands filled but a portion of my palm the first day you said you would love me forever.

Through your eyes I see again the magic of a world so devoid of imagination that it blinded me. You showed me how little around me matters and how much so little does.

The flowers you picked and excitedly handed me that day in the park, still smell as sweet after all this time. I am sure they will never die.

Our morning adventures in the car on the way to school are so very precious to me. I don’t want to start a day in any other way. And I don’t want those days to end.

But they will.

And when they do, I will smell those flowers again, and pretend they never can.

No matter where you find yourself, always remember that you are everything to me. I will protect you ferociously and without fear – even, if the time comes, from yourself.

You are my teacher, my muse, my greatest love.

My Son.