Feature Image: double rainbow after a long day of clouds and rain.

Ira Klay Smooke was born at 6:14 pm on May 9, 2022 at the Vail Hospital via a smooth, almost painless vaginal delivery ✨

My dearest daughter,

The first time I wrote a public letter to you, I was 4 months pregnant with you, not knowing your gender yet fixating in my heart you were a girl, on November 9, 2016. That was the day after the United States of America…

“Good? That’s all you’ve got?”
I mean
A bright sunny day is good;

The date was July 21, 2016. Just a month before that, I had been promoted to Head of Asia Marketing from Regional Manager of Southeast Asia at the world’s self-prolaimed most selective university. 

Dearest darling,

Okay – I must admit. I don’t even know if you will be a girl yet. We will find out very soon next week, after my second trimester ultrasound. But in my heart, you are.