little blessings

It's an exciting year for our family. Not only am I expecting my first, but my brother and his wife are as well, just a few weeks after us. This means my parents are getting their first two grandchildren within a month. Fun, fun, fun.

And in the early hours of this past Friday morning, my cousin and his wife welcomed their first baby into the world, a gorgeous little girl named Lily Sabine [Sigh]. Just typing this makes my throat lump and my eyes tear up, I'm so humbled and euphoric. She was a couple of weeks earlier than expected, but is healthy and doing well. Happy, happy day. My dear friend and college roomie was in town visiting us with her family, and the two of us went to see the newest member of my family. I got to meet Lily just 5 hours after her birth...a sleepy, squeaky little bundle of tiny breaths and grunts and wiggles. oof. The new parents had a little dedication prepared and asked me and my friend to be part of it. He handed us printouts of the ceremony and asked us each to do a scripture reading. Again, so humbling and so special. It was tearful and happy and a very powerful celebration of this new little life.

They too decided to be surprised, so there were sentences that said "he/she" and also blanks left to insert the baby's name. In the moment, I didn't process that detail, but reflecting on it later, it strikes me as really profound and I'm struggling to put it into adequate words. Before the birth, that blank is simply a line on a page. After, it's so much more...like a space you didn't even know needed filling before the birth of your child. Once here, it's hard to imagine your lives without that little person. I'm not describing this well, but I will ponder it more and perhaps make more sense of it another time.

At any rate, there's a lifetime of filling in the blanks ahead, of unwritten stories and new adventures. Our personal choose-your-own-adventure is on the horizon and we're patiently anticipating our leading character's debut so we can begin filling in his/her blanks. For now we are going to absorb all the joys and wonderment that Lily Sabine has just brought into the world and celebrate as her new stories unfold.