I actually began thinking about it before Elaine did. I have no idea what exactly prompted me to start considering offspring, but I know where I was - at the wedding of a childhood friend, who is also the daughter of the pastor of the church I grew up in. I suppose I was just looking at the circle of life: my friend I'd grown up with; adults in the church who had grown old; children and babies. When I began to consider all of this life, I just began to want more and more to contribute to carrying on that cycle, and to experience the joy of bringing new life into the world.
The intervening year have held much joy and anticipation, many doctor's appointments, countless vitamins and nutritional supplements (at least on the part of my wife), and, within the last month or so, an unspeakable amount of water retention (again, my wife being the chief sweller). All in all, I am very excited about the birth of Ian/Jaina, eager to meet him/her, slightly anxious about the large volume of parenting literature that I probably should have read by now, and growing impatient for Ian/Jaina's impending arrival (or is "debut" a more auspicious word to use for occasion?).
So here I sit, on Independence Day, waiting for an event that many would argue will end independence for my wife and me - at least as we know it now. Most people claim to want life to be more simple, and to heap less responsibility upon them. However, I also acknowledge that many of the most wonderful gifts in life require us to accept new responsibility, and embrace new complication. So let the responsibilities and the complication come. I am firmly convinced that growing our family is exactly the right sort of complication to which to commit.
Most of all, I hope that the baby comes soon. My wife's feet may explode any moment now. Check this out:
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