Remember I found two monarch chrysalises some days ago? A couple of days later, Alex found a third. Turns out this one was the first caterpillar to build her chrysalis.

This morning, when I checked on it, it had turned from bright green to a dark black — and you could see the wings of the butterfly through the walls of the chrysalis (this image has been processed so that you can see it better).

I knew things would happen quickly, so I kept checking back.

And suddenly, there she was.

It was amazing. At one point, she fell into the grass below, so Marcus and I got a stick, and she crawled onto it. She needed to spend the next few hours drying her wings, so we stuck the stick into a potted plant we had on our front porch, so she would be out of the rain that was threatening to show up.

We decided to call her Wuhan — because she was the first to emerge from her cocoon. (Get it?)

I went back inside for about an hour, and when I came back out, she was still there … until suddenly, she flew: her first flight. I watched as she flitted around the yard, and then abruptly landed in the grass, near the sidewalk. I ran over and she was struggling to take off again. So I put my finger next to her.

And she climbed right on it.

For about 5 minutes, she sat on my fingers. I marveled at her — she was just perfect.

And then she flew away.

It was magical.

Soundtrack: I’ll fly away, as performed by Gillian Welch and Alison Krauss