29 Years!

Well, I'm a year older now, although I don't know that I'm any wiser! One can dream.

My birthday was great. It was such a treat to have Kristin visit. She's a trooper...six weeks in Egypt, about 24 hours at home, and then she was off again to visit me in exotic Minnesota. That's love. :-) Tim was very sweet also, getting me flowers and a cake, despite the fact that he had ZERO free time leading up to my birthday. He woke me up on my birthday with somewhere around 29 kisses, which might have been my favorite present of all. And my friend Diana got me a cake as well, which we had at a gathering of friends here in Rochester. So there was a lot of cake, which is a great thing. And Diana got me a great shirt that said "watch out, this thing is about to explode" ..obviously referring to my belly. It was a trip.

In other belly news, it's a-growin'. I'm starting to get pretty uncomfortable with the extra weight and the strength and vigor of the baby. Don't get me wrong, I'm passionately grateful for a healthy and active baby, but it's starting to wear on me. Labor is starting to look very attractive. In fact, this very morning I discovered that my hands are swollen like a cartoon character's ...and my engagement ring is still on. I'm a little bit worried about this, and I'm definitely planning on wrestling it off asap. It seems like another sign that the baby is becoming ready for a life independent of me.

It's hard to believe that I've got 29 years on this little one. On one hand, it seems like an amazingly small amount of time and experience to be entrusted with preparing someone else for a lifetime. On the other, my 29 years have been rich with experiences and blessings. I hope that Tim and I are "ready" for this incredible joy and responsibility, but I'm not sure that anyone is ever fully prepared for it. I think it's something that we'll figure out as we go. And, as with most lessons, we will learn more fully ourselves as we attempt to teach our child.

I'm so excited to meet this baby. I can't wait to be able to hold our baby and kiss its little mouth and hands and just...KNOW...them. Right now, it's all possibility. It might be a girl or a boy, it might be a quiet and "thoughtful" baby, or a loud and rambunctious little one...it might be anything. Roly poly or tiny, a good sleeper (please Lord) or a cat napper...anything at all. The only thing I'm sure of is that the baby belongs with us and that we love him or her. We just can't wait to get to know this little person of ours.