{"id":32091,"date":"2019-04-05T19:21:53","date_gmt":"2019-04-05T19:21:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/?p=32091"},"modified":"2019-04-08T06:01:56","modified_gmt":"2019-04-08T06:01:56","slug":"to-my-friends-kids-i-love-you-like-youre-mine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/2019\/04\/05\/to-my-friends-kids-i-love-you-like-youre-mine\/","title":{"rendered":"To my friend&#8217;s kids: I love you like you&#8217;re mine."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>To my friend&#8217;s kids:<\/p>\n<p>I hope you know how much I love you. You&#8217;re not mine, but I love you like you are. You&#8217;re not my niece or nephew by blood, but you are by choice&#8230;and that pretty much means you&#8217;re stuck with me forever. You are my chosen sister&#8217;s baby and that means you own a piece of my heart and you always will.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"12830\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/2016\/10\/03\/dear-mama-in-case-you-forgot-the-magic\/fullsizerender-98\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/fullsizerender-98.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"1280,960\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;2.2&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;iPhone 6s&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1474711151&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;4.15&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;125&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.033333333333333&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"fullsizerender-98\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/fullsizerender-98.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/fullsizerender-98.jpg\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-12830\" src=\"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/fullsizerender-98.jpg\" alt=\"fullsizerender-98\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/fullsizerender-98.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/fullsizerender-98-600x450.jpg?crop=1 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I am your fan. I am watching you grow like a sold out groupie on band tour. I have loved every minute of watching the person you&#8217;re becoming.\u00a0 I love the way you smile and the way you laugh. I love how I see glimpses of your mama in you and glimpses of your daddy too.\u00a0 You are so much them, and you are so much YOU at the same time.<\/p>\n<p>I am a firm believer in bonus moms. My kids have your mom, and you have me. I trust her to love my kids like her own, and she trusts me to do the same. When life gets hard or complicated, I&#8217;m always a text or call away. **If you&#8217;re ever butting heads with your mama, I don&#8217;t want to call myself an expert&#8230;but I am an expert, and she&#8217;s an expert on me.**<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"19839\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/2017\/02\/27\/becoming-a-working-mom\/img_7823\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/img_7823-4201738099-1554491474212.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"3024,2822\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"img_7823\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/img_7823-4201738099-1554491474212-300x280.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/img_7823-4201738099-1554491474212-1024x956.jpg\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-19839\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/wonderoak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/img_7823-4201738099-1554491474212.jpg?ssl=1&amp;w=300\" alt=\"img_7823\" width=\"300\" height=\"280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/img_7823-4201738099-1554491474212.jpg 3024w, https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/img_7823-4201738099-1554491474212-600x560.jpg 600w, https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/img_7823-4201738099-1554491474212-300x280.jpg 300w, https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/img_7823-4201738099-1554491474212-768x717.jpg 768w, https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/img_7823-4201738099-1554491474212-1024x956.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/img_7823-4201738099-1554491474212-536x500.jpg 536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"32093\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/2019\/04\/05\/to-my-friends-kids-i-love-you-like-youre-mine\/img_1353\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_1353-2909345653-1554491413925.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"588,551\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"IMG_1353\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_1353-2909345653-1554491413925-300x281.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_1353-2909345653-1554491413925.jpg\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-32093\" style=\"color: var(--color-neutral-600);\" src=\"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_1353-2909345653-1554491413925-300x281.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_1353\" width=\"300\" height=\"281\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_1353-2909345653-1554491413925-300x281.jpg 300w, https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_1353-2909345653-1554491413925-534x500.jpg 534w, https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_1353-2909345653-1554491413925.jpg 588w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I will be watching your back when you get to those hards years. You&#8217;re stuck at a party without a safe driver? I AM THERE. No judgement, no questions&#8230;THERE. You need to vent because life is hard and complicated? I WILL PROVIDE THE COFFEE. You need to raid my fridge? My fridge is your fridge and my pizza is your pizza.\u00a0 I will always have your back. I mean it.<\/p>\n<p>You better believe I&#8217;m going to bawl my eyes out at your high school graduation. I&#8217;ll be the one by your mom who forgot to put on waterproof mascara and looks like she got in a fight with black eyeliner. Don&#8217;t even get me started on the day you get married or when you hold your own baby in your arms. You are going to do great things and I am here for it.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m so proud of you. No matter what you do or how old you grow I will always remember when you were fresh and tiny. I&#8217;ll always remember the day your mama told me she was pregnant. I can remember the joy so clearly I can touch it. I remember the way your mama looked at you when she held you in her arms. She looked at you like you hung the moon and she still does. I&#8217;ve changed your diapers (sorry), I&#8217;ve held you while you took a bottle, and I&#8217;ve snatched you up when you fell and scraped a knee. I am invested.\u00a0 I was invested then, I&#8217;m invested now, and I&#8217;m here for the long haul.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"10656\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/2016\/08\/22\/thank-you-mom-what-your-kids-meant-to-say\/fullsizerender-87\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/fullsizerender-87.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"1398,1480\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;2.2&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;iPhone 6s&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1459082775&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;4.15&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;200&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.066666666666667&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"FullSizeRender-87\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/fullsizerender-87.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/fullsizerender-87.jpg\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-10656\" src=\"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/fullsizerender-87.jpg\" alt=\"FullSizeRender-87\" width=\"283\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/fullsizerender-87.jpg 1398w, https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/fullsizerender-87-600x635.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 283px) 100vw, 283px\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"32094\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/2019\/04\/05\/to-my-friends-kids-i-love-you-like-youre-mine\/img_1292\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_1292-1998127832-1554491360214.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"481,482\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"IMG_1292\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_1292-1998127832-1554491360214-300x300.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_1292-1998127832-1554491360214.jpg\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-32094\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wonderoak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_1292-1998127832-1554491360214.jpg?ssl=1&amp;w=299\" alt=\"IMG_1292\" width=\"299\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_1292-1998127832-1554491360214.jpg 481w, https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_1292-1998127832-1554491360214-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_1292-1998127832-1554491360214-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_1292-1998127832-1554491360214-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 299px) 100vw, 299px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Your mom is stuck with me, and so are you.<\/p>\n<p>I love you.<\/p>\n<p>Love,<\/p>\n<p>Aunt Jess<\/p>\n<p>***<\/p>\n<p>For more like this follow me here, on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wonderoak\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Facebook<\/a>, and on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/wonderoakblog\/\">Insta<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To my friend&#8217;s kids: I hope you know how much I love you. You&#8217;re not mine, but I love you like you are. You&#8217;re not my niece or nephew by blood, but you are by choice&#8230;and that pretty much means you&#8217;re stuck with me forever. You are my chosen sister&#8217;s baby and that means you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32092,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/FullSizeRender-92-4158149456-1554490626768.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6wz1w-8lB","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32091"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32100,"href":"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32091\/revisions\/32100"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}