nothing begs for a name, nothing wants to stay the same and nothing's broken

From the moment I learned Wylie was a girl, I sang her Woman King by Iron & Wine constantly. Ever since the release of the song shortly after I graduated high school, I had interpreted the lyrics as being about a woman who was so strong but the world kept trying to push her back down because they weren't ready for a woman of her strength. I wanted Wylie to know she was strong and this song sort of became hers. Before we realized her heart was broken, I was trying to come up with ideas for a tattoo for her that involved the song but I couldn't come up with anything solid. The day we lost her, the idea popped into my head. I wanted an anatomically correct heart to symbolize her heart now being whole and no longer broken. Of course, I wanted to include lyrics to the song that we listened to together constantly throughout my pregnancy. It will never not be her song and that always sort of brings me comfort, to be able to listen to it whenever I want to and think of her. She is the strongest girl I know.

I got the tattoo for her late Saturday night and already shared it on Instagram and my personal Facebook, but I couldn't not share it here, too. It came out more beautiful than I ever could have imagined. I'm in what feels like the minority, but I'm not a spiritual person. I put way more stock into the physical body and while I do agree Wylie will always be in our hearts, there was a nice sense of peace to know she's finally with me forever. Just knowing there is now a piece of her with me that will remain with me until I'm no longer here, it just sort of brings a little clarity.

The only thing keeping me from staring at it all day long is the fact it's on the back of my shoulder so that's a little hard, but it's still tempting to do so. It's more beautiful than I could ever have imagined -- a beautiful tribute to our beautiful daughter who I now can carry with me for the rest of my life.

(And huge thanks to Ted Mendoza at No Hard Feelings in Coral Springs for being the best tattoo artist ever and being super patient because I'm willing to guess I'm the worst person on the planet to tattoo.)