“Life is always a rich
and steady
time when you are
waiting for
something to happen or
to hatch.”
- E.B. White, Charlotte’s
Web
We are waiting!
It’s always the waiting…hurry up, hurry up…then wait!
I grew up with two sisters – Margaret Anne, my elder and
Nancy Jeanne, my younger. I was the ice cream in the ‘ice cream sandwich’ of the
off spring in my family.
Both of my sisters, remarkable in their own ways, had
daughters. Nancy’s daughter Mariah Lynn and Anne’s daughter Nancy Ellen. We
lost sister Nancy much too early four years ago on the 12th of
February, a day we celebrated her life and mourned our loss.
Molly and I have no children. No, it isn’t because we
couldn’t; it is because we made a deliberate and conscious choice to not bring
a child (-ren) into the world. In those child bearing years, we made the
decision to dedicate our lives in the service of others, wanting to be
available as much as we could to those efforts. As we look back, both in our 6th
decade, it was the right choice and one for which we are grateful having made.
We are impatiently
tapping our toes here!!
Fortunately, in the early childless years, we had lots of
time which I filled with hundreds of hours (over several decades) as a youth
group co-director for the church community we were serving. Acting in this capacity, I had the privilege of
working with some of the great kids I have known in my life. You know what I
mean…kind of like grand parenting…you play with them, do interesting and fun
things, and when you are done, just send ‘em home!
Along the way, Mariah Lynn and Nancy shared a home with us
for the first 14 years of the Mariah’s life. It was wonderful. I got to be a
surrogate dad and saw the girls every day. It was like having a daughter that just
showed up. When the two of them moved to their own home just before high
school, I mourned the empty nest.
Mariah grew up in to a strong, vibrant woman, finished
medical school, married a fellow named Dan (great guy), had a baby boy (Coen) nearly
a year ago and is doing her residency in Baltimore, Maryland.
We are getting kind of
antsy – if you know what I mean!!!
Baltimore, now here is where this all gets interesting.
Nancy Ellen, you might recall being just previously
mentioned, my older sister’s daughter, also grew up into a strong vibrant
woman. She became a compassionate and smart hospital social worker, married a
gal named Jessie and lives in Baltimore!
Here is what all this
waiting is about!!!!
Nancy is about as pregnant as she can get and we were hoping
she would deliver her baby a couple of days ago. We ARE waiting for the delivery.
Like Coen, this little creature in the spaceship of its
mother’s tummy (gender unknown to me), is running a little late and causing all
of us to hold our collective breaths, waiting for it’s appearance.
It’s not just us, of course, but a chorus of folk who love
these young women and look forward to meeting this child as it begins its
journey on the planet we have come to love…
I have tried incantations, holding my breath, quietly
meditating in prayer and consorting with my Tibetan souvenir prayer beads…
In the end, it (she/he) will be what it (she/he) will be.
I suppose I need to relax and just “…breathe…”
- ted
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