waiting...

A few of you know that I am away from home, having travelled to be with a long-time friend of ours who is expecting her first baby any day now. I feel so privelleged to be here with her and her husband and her great big hiccuping belly. Before I left I had a few conversations about the trip with the girls. Ani wanted a reminder of why I was coming here to be with Bubbie, which is what we call her in our family, so I told her that we don't always get the chance to be with the people we love in the important moments in their lives, and when she asked that I come it was important that our family make that happen. I reminded her that Bubbie had seen her be born, that she was there for both of their births, and that it was our turn to be there for her. Eliza asked me if birthing a baby hurts, and I told her it does, but not like falling down and getting hurt kind of hurt...she wanted to know more, so I tried to explain it like this: Who is someone you have always wanted to meet? Obama. Ok, great, so you are on a journey to meet Obama, and he lives at the very top of a large mountain, and you're going to have to climb it to see him. Alone. There will be people along the way to give you water, to remind you to breathe, to say "You're doing it!!!", but your feet are going to really hurt, your lungs are going to work so hard it feels like they're going to burst, and you're going to be so tired that you can only think of putting one foot in front of the other...but...when you arrive at the top of the mountain, Obama will throw open the doors of his house and welcome you with open arms! He'll invite you in, where he's made you a giant plate of pancakes with whipped cream and sprinkles, and you're going to spend the whole day chatting, playing games, and enjoying each other. You forget how tired you are, how much work it was, and you're just really glad you are there.

I think she got the idea. We went from there to going through, in detail, both of the girls' births. How we love the retelling...

I awoke this morning, after a long day yesterday of travel and jet-lag, to see Mount Rainier rising to the south, and was treated to views of the Cascades and Olympics throughout the day. I spent the morning at Bubbie's kitchen table, talking pregnancy, birth, kids, until we both sighed and decided to get dressed and move forward with the day. To another conversation about 10 feet away in the baby's room, about preganancy, birth, kids...And that is kind of how the day went. Blissful. Relaxed. With plenty of hiccups.