And Then There Were Two

two(miniOregonians)

Lucie bumped, cuddled, elbowed, and queried my rounding belly for the better part of last summer, fall, and winter. She grew herself through tiny tot stages, adjusting and growing and trying to understand. We started reading I’m a Big Sister* shortly after her second birthday in September, watched “circle tub” water birth videos in the new year, and practicing giving her own little baby a bath during the weeks before my due date.

I credit her with so much.

Trying at two to comprehend the foreign notion of big sister and what such a life change entails.

Since I’d never had a baby sister of my own, I wished so much to watch the two of them meet and see her heart expand.

How special for Ted and me to welcome little Marion on a Friday afternoon and then have my parents bring Lucie to the birth center just a few hours later to meet her little sister for the very first time. There’s never any telling how something like that might go, but I had my hopes…and a camera lined up just in case…

Little Marion, so loved.

twoOregonians on the biggest adventure yet.

I’ve been pondering the anticipation of change. The sense of hearing terms (like “big sister” or perhaps the more adult versions like “homeowner” or “parent of two” or “faithful disciple”) while still naive and inexperienced and unsure of how life will all work out…

And then I think back on the days when “world traveler” was a huge unknown. When I couldn’t picture in concrete terms the way we’d build life twelve months on the move. Yet every foot fall on that journey became a stepping off point for another lesson, another blessing (sometimes in the disguise of hardship, yes), another opportunity to live richly and choose how to grow into the person I desire to become.

It’s still the same today, I suppose, and Lucie is my little inspiration, taking on new layers of identity and expectation, greeting her brand new baby sister – her brand new life – with an overflowing heart and an adorable grin.

Oh, give me the faith of a child.

*Lucie’s favorite book (that invokes baby’s inability to “eat pizza or apples or ice cream” and makes a big girl who can eat those things feel pretty great in her new role): I’m a Big Sister

Thank you to my parents and mother in law and brother for welcoming Marion, too, that day at the birth center and especially my “can-deal-with-crazy” photographer Erin Tole for coming to battle low light and iPhone paparazzi to document my delights.

(For a peek at Lucie and Marion since that day in February, check #luluandmae and tell me they aren’t the cutest little people ever.)

Also: A reminder that my piece “Spill It” is now available in the new Mama Said: Wit + Wisdom for Mothers anthology, a collection from 29 writers and creatives celebrating motherhood: “The laughter, the tears, the joy, the overwhelm – all of the human emotions that come along with raising small beings…” Digital and hard copies available at the link.