I realize she is my child, but I have honestly never seen anyone look more beautiful in sleep.  Of course I have watched her sleeping since the moment she came out of me.  And she has always been beautiful.  I remember the nurses going in and out of my room around 3 a.m. and I got concerned because there were really quite a few of them.  Convinced something was wrong, I finally asked what they were checking for.  I think I sort of startled them because they’d assumed I was asleep.  After they assured me nothing was wrong one woman said that in the over sixteen years she had been a delivery nurse she had only seen one other baby get a perfect 10 on their Apgar test.  After I learned what it stood for I KNEW IT!  And I was so incredibly proud!  It was irrational but after everything I went through and all the scares and warnings about “advanced maternal age” it was both a gratifying blessing and tremendous relief.  I got to thinking recently about Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty” and how the three fairy godmothers each got to bless Princess Aurora with a single gift.  The first was the gift of beauty, the second, the gift of song.  We will never know what the third would have been since it had to be changed in order to save her from Maleficent.  Going back to the beginning the feminist in me was never too sure about the whole princess thing and needing to be rescued by a man.  Fortunately times have changed but I do see redemptive qualities in each of the characters with which I would like to gift my daughter.  I see kindness in Snow White as she cared for the dwarfs and never looked upon them differently than any one else.  I see determination in Ariel, “The Little Mermaid”, to make her own life.  In Belle from “Beauty and the Beast” I see a love of reading and also a great compassion.  In Jasmine from “Aladdin” I see someone not concerned with social constraints or financial boundaries.  In Pocahontas I see a real woman who respected the earth and all its creatures.  In Mulan I see courage and honor as she fought in her father’s place for China.  In Tiana from “The Princess and the Frog” I see someone with dreams working to make them come true.  And of course in Cinderella I see the happy ending of true love the romantic in me cannot help but want for my Baby Doll.  Maris has beauty, kindness, determination, compassion, inclusiveness, a love of God and nature, courage and honor, and she is already a hard worker with dreams of her own she wants to fulfill.  I pray she will continue to strengthen these qualities AND find true love.  American psychiatrist David Viscott said, “To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides.”  Someday some guy is going to feel the warmth of her sun and know he simply cannot live without her.  If he is lucky, she will feel the same.  And they will live happily ever after.