For my peace of mind

I have tried to be proactive in protecting Beanie.  That to me is one of the most important parts of being a parent and I take that responsibility very seriously.

In Jan 2013, before Beanie was born I took two critical steps to ensure she was protected.
-  I bought a substantial life insurance policy on myself (in addition to what I get from my job, and a smaller policy I had from my 20's) to ensure that she would be finally secure should something happen to me in child birth, or later in her life.
-  I made a will since I did not have one before.

That gave me a lot of peace of mind as I entered the last months of my pregnancy and went through childbirth.

Right after her birth, I amended my will to formally add her into it (they needed a name/DOB), so she could be protected both in terms of physical custody and financial affairs.

Earlier this year before we took our first long road trip, I amended my will again. This time to add in additional guardians for Beanie. Reason is that my parents are her primary guardians and since they, Beanie and I travel together a lot (car, plane) and it worried me if we were all to be in a crash or something, that would leave Beanie unprotected. Now I have back ups.

Today, while Beanie is spending the night with my parents, I did one last piece of the puzzle that has been on my mind for several months now.

I prepared an envelope for Beanie, to be read by her in the event something was to happen to me. It includes information on Beanie's donors, including photos and information on my blog.

It may not sound like much, but, I realized that only I know this information. My family does not know about my online blog and nobody knows anything specific about Beanie's donors.

The information is on my computer but (a) someone needs to know my computer password (b) someone has to go through my files to find it. And given, how I am suddenly aware of how life can change on a dime, I need to ensure that the information is available to Beanie.

I have printed out the information and also written a letter to Beanie from me, telling her how much I love her and how she came to be. I also included my blog since this is the place where I chronicle our journey and it would be invaluable to Beanie to learn bout our life together.

The envelope is ready and will be put in the bank safe deposit next week.

Makes me feel so much better.