Miss Margaret

My cousin, and friend, Shannon had her beautiful baby this past Friday, 8/28/09. They chose not to find out the sex of the baby and rather be surprised. Shannon was convinced she was carrying a little boy, but surprise surprise, it was a beautiful baby girl! Margaret Lillian VanHeest came into the world at 9lbs 13oz and 22in! She is gorgeous, and is going to break all sorts of hearts! Adam and I were able to go up Sunday and visit them all. It was especially exciting since my Aunt and Uncle were in town from South Carolina and visits with them are rare. Shannon looked beautiful and Kyle was beaming--they are going to be incredible parents. That little girl is so lucky to have them.

Adam painted a ceramic elephant bank for Margaret and we brought champagne for a toast. As Margaret began to cry, Kyle toasted "May she grow to be all the more intelligent, all the more beautiful....and...." then my Aunt Becky jumped in to finish it off "and out of this stage!". It was funny, every so often someone would joke "I guess this is pretty good birth control, huh?" but the thing was, it had just the opposite effect, it made me ache to be ready for that part of our lives.

Now, before you panic--read that again,I know we're not ready, and we won't rush into a lifetime commitment prematurely. Still, it's hard knowing so many of our friends are in that place already and we're not. When we left that night, our conversation in the car almost immediately turned to having children. We've had the conversation before, but it seemed alot more relevant this time. How many did we want, what were our hopes for our children, how did we think we'd handle pregnancy and parenting? I know Adam will be an incredible father, but I don't know what parenting will have in store for me...