somtimes...

...when you pick up your child you can feel the map of your own bones beneath your hands, or smell the scent of your skin in the nape of (her) neck.  this is the most extraordinary thing about

motherhood

 - finding a piece of yourself separate and apart that all the same you could not live without.  it is the feeling you get when you place the last scrap of the 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle; it is the last footfall in a photo finish race; exhilaration and homecoming and stunned

wonder

...caught between those stubby fingers and the spaces where baby teeth have given way...

-jodi picoult, author

perfect match