One Month In

Life with a new baby leaves very little time to do much else other than attending to her. Of course, that's nothing new to those of you with children. People kept telling me how much my life would change after she arrived, and I just kept saying, "I know." I didn't know; I thought I did. While it was quite annoying that people seemed so intent on pressing this reality on me, it is no less true that everything does indeed change.

Willow is four weeks old today and is seated just to the right of me in her boucy seat. She is so alert and seems eager to discover all that she can as soon as she can.

We received quite a surprise this last weekend. After a dinner at my in-laws to celebrate the engagement of Chris's younger brother, we went to my parents' house to see my brother's wife and kids. We found just a couple hours earlier that they were making an impromptu visit to Nashville to see Willow. Just after we arrived, my sister Eva bounced in the door laden with several boxes announcing that she had brought pizza. Just in behind her strolled my brother, Wayne, with a bouquet of flowers for me. What's so surprising about this is that he's supposed to be in Iraq. I felt like I was hallusinating. Surely, I couldn't really be awake! But there he was! He hugged me, and I just started crying and trying to spit out the question, "How are you here?" To which he sarcastically replied, "Well, they have these things called airplanes...." He is actually here on emergency leave, sent home by the Red Cross, as he needed to see about a situation with one of his sons. Thank you, Clara Barton (founder of the American Red Cross). I am so thrilled that he was able to see Willow while she is still so tiny, and I was blessed to witness my rather formidable, strong brother hold that sweet little girl in his arms.

And now she is becoming not so content, so I need to turn my attention to her.