Our Sweet Little Girl

In April 2018 our oldest goddaughter - let's call her Tamara because that's her name - gave birth to her first child. She's a grown-ass woman now, married to a wonderful man, and the birth of this child was both a joyous and heartbreaking time for Pig and me.

Joyous because it was the birth of our first great-godchild. Heartbreaking because we weren't there to celebrate. However, a couple of weeks after the birth, we flew back to Brisbane to meet the tiny bundle. I still tear up remembering the first time I held her, little Elliot Anne. She was perfect.

There was a dual purpose to our visit, however. Pig and I could finally marry, legally, in Australia, so our family arranged a wedding for us in their back yard. This meant our entire chosen family was there, including the other climate refugees now living in Tasmania and Canberra. So the entire family met Miss E at the same time, and the tears flowed more freely than the pink Moët champagne we'd bought for the wedding... Don't judge us! We're gay men and it's fucking delicious 💁‍♂️

But I'm veering off on a tangent. A few months after the birth and after our wedding, Tamara asked me to write a reading for Miss E's naming ceremony. Through the happy tears at being included, this is what I came up with:

We loved you before we met you, our sweet little girl
When you were just a bump in your mother’s belly,
causing a lump in all our throats

Finally you came along, our sweet little girl
We all waited with bated breath,
waiting for you to draw your first

And now you’re among us, our sweet little girl
Bathed in happiness and swaddled with love,
so precious and pure and real

Nobody is perfect, our sweet little girl
But you challenged that notion and now we know,
you are perfection made real

Our job is to guide you, our sweet little girl
To lead by example and stand by your side,
to always lend you an ear

Life has its pitfalls, our sweet little girl
But it doesn’t matter how often you fall,
as long as you always stand

We didn’t know you were missing, our sweet little girl
We didn’t know you were missing until you were born,
our sweet little Elliot Anne

I wish I had the skills and talent to set the piece to music, but I'm thrilled with the end result. Every time I ask Tamara her opinion she bursts into tears... which I choose to take as positive feedback 👍

Whenever I'm asked my opinion on children, my standard quip is:

"I love children, but I couldn't possibly eat a whole one."

Truth be told, Pig and I tried several times over the decades to adopt children of our own but were always turned down - mostly due to my mental and physical health issues. Our four godchildren and their increasing brood are the closest we'll ever come to having children of our own, and maybe that's for the best. The adoption agencies knew what they were doing 😞

The best thing about godchildren and great-godchildren is that you can hand them back to their parents whenever they break, or cry, or throw a tantrum, or need a nappy change. These things tend to get a little awkward and cumbersome once they reach 25 years of age 🤷‍♂️

So thank you, Tamara. Thank you for including me. Thank you for making me still feel part of the family, now that you're all grown up and have your own. But most of all, thank you for spawning 👶