“The sum is greater than its parts,” or so the saying goes.
And now the two of us see proof of that as each one grows,
Distinct but similar in code, the perfect mix and match
Of you and me but with a little extra in each batch.

You gave your chromosomes, all twenty-three, and I gave mine:
That nose like yours, those eyes like mine, his humor, her hairline.
The two became one, yes it’s true, that one plus one is one,
But each of us gave more than us to daughter and to son.

For isn’t that your Uncle Bob we hear in boyish joke,
My grandma’s fingers on the keys our daughter can evoke?
A cousin’s art, your father’s songs, Aunt Margaret’s detail--
We see and hear and sense them all; our children tell their tale.

But still there’s more; it’s not heredity alone they bear,
Not just genetic predetermination that they share.
For parts of them go further than we trace from you or me,
Those aspects that can’t find a match in recent history.

Original in talent, passion, attitude, and mien,
Each child is now a prototype the world has never seen,
Once Breath from Heaven animated life within each cell.
Their DNA and heritage were just an earthly shell.

Remember when we held them, small, in wonder and in awe
That mortal hands could hold eternal souls, so new, so raw?
We knew then as we know it now, the honor of our place
Our sum, as parents, greater than our parts, by far, by grace.