BIRTH day

I can't remember when my sister let me know that she was pregnant - I think it was right around Christmas.  Chemo was over, I was reconstructed, and looking for something to feel good about.

Anyone who knows her figured she would have been a mother 10 times over by now.  But life, as we all know it, does not always turn out exactly how we plan.

Sometimes it simply happens the way it should.

So our family was utterly over joyed that she was having a healthy pregnancy, and the birth of my mothers 6th grandchild would come a few weeks after I was finished with my final treatment.

When she asked that I be in the room during the birth I was a little gun shy about the whole thing.  After delivering 3 kids of my own, I am not sure if I was prepared for this new vantage point.

For those of you who have never had your own baby, or who were too afraid (or too old), to witness a human coming into the world let me just tell you, it is amazing.

The best part for all of us in the room on Monday night was we didn't know if it was a boy or girl, we didn't know the name, we didn't know when the baby would get to us.

What we did know was as the night was moving from Monday, to the beginning of Tuesday, this baby was going to be born 3 years to the day when its parents met for the first time.

An hour and a half into pushing I needed to sit down (it is exhausting being the assistant coach!), and take a moment to take in what was happening.

After facing my mortality, I think I am coming to terms with it.  Trust me, I want to live to see at least 50 more birthdays, but I also realize that as much as I want to live forever, it is simply not in the cards.

For any of us.

But here I was, alive at the moment another member of my family was about to start their own life.

I wondered what the world would be like for this baby.  I wondered what they would become, and I wondered how long I would get to know them.

And that is all we can really do - wonder.

And that is wonderful.

So after my rest, I was ready to get back at it, I was ready to see this baby being born.

About 20 minutes later, after 2 hours of pushing, out into the world came my nephew, Lucas Gene Burden.

And he is perfect.

And he is wonderful.