The day my daughter Amber was born seventeen years ago was a proud and happy moment for Jimmy and me. Like all new parents we were so proud we could burst, and Jimmy hovered anxiously over my bed all that first day as I held Amber in my arms.

Unlike today when a mother and child are typically out of the hospital in twenty-four to forty-eight hours, Amber and I spent four days there before being discharged. Jimmy spent as much time with us as he possibly could.

Every morning Jimmy teased me about my thorough examination of Amber as though I thought they would bring her to me some morning with parts missing -- hands, arms, fingers, toes all present and accounted for. But on our last morning in the hospital, as I performed my daily inspection, I was shocked to find a little envelope tucked into the front of Amber's diaper. What on earth were these people doing?

I gently slid the envelope out of her diaper, finding that rather than paper, the envelope was made of the softest satin. I carefully opened the envelope to find a note that read, "Look in the bottom drawer of your nightstand". I handed Amber to Jimmy, who was looking on intently, and climbed out of bed to look in the nightstand.

There I found another note which read:

Our lives have changed forever
From now on it will only get better and better
To remind you of this precious time
A special gift is yours to find

At the bottom of the poem it read, "When you're finished with this note, ring for the charge nurse."

I pushed the button and almost immediately the nurse walked in with her little pill tray in hand and handed it to me with a smile. There was the familiar assortment of pills, but in the center was a little box wrapped in pink paper with a shimmering red bow on top. "What's this?" I asked, to which the nurse just shrugged her shoulders.

I unwrapped the box and found a pair of tiny eighteen carat gold baby booties. Just then Jimmy held out a beautiful gold charm bracelet. "This is the single most special occasion in our lives, the birth of our first daughter. Every year on Amber's birthday we'll add another gold charm significant of her life at that moment. I love you Deb." And then he held both Amber and I close in his big warm hug.