3.15.11
Exactly one month ago today my world changed. One month ago today I became an Aunt.
I’ve mentioned here before that my little sister was pregnant, you can see that post here. Actually I’ve talked a lot about my sister on this blog and all the things that have been happening in her life in the past few years. All of those things pale in comparison to what happened on 3.15.11. While that day was most definitely not about me, all I have to relate is how that day changed me, changed my outlook on life, and really did change my world.
To be completely honest, (and if I can’t be honest with the scathes of faceless people on the internet, who can I be honest with?) I’ve never been that girl that dreams of growing up and starting a family. Finding someone to share my life with, someone to marry, yes. Someone to procreate with, no. And I’m most definitely not going to tell you that experiencing the birth of my niece completely changed those thoughts, because it didn’t. However, it did make me understand the yearning that others have to make that jump.
But first, let me back up. Growing up my sister and I were not close, VERY not close. We fought constantly especially in High School. I’m not sure exactly what caused that to change along the way but I remember the exact moment it did change. She was in college (she went away to college, I stayed in the same town we grew up in) and I think she was at home for a visit. I had been going through some tough times lately with boys and we somehow bridged the gap from casual “I’m so sorry to hear that” conversation to really talking about what was going on. By the end of that conversation we had covered every single romantic relationship each of us had ever had with all the ridiculous details. I’m not sure if her living in a different city had anything to do with it, but we gradually started talking more often. From that point on we were the kind of sisters that I can only imagine everyone wants to be. Today we don’t go for more than a few days without speaking. Ours is one of the most important relationships in my life.
So back to the now. It was important to my sister that I be in the delivery room with her during the entire process. I think my first and most important duty was to be there with her husband for moral support, the second, of course, was to take pictures. Now, I won’t go into all the details because no one really wants to read about that here and I’m not really up to typing it out, so if you’re really interested google that one (but not at work, trust me). What I will say was, is that I wasn’t prepared for the reality of it all to be so close and up in my face. I optimistically thought there would be some sort of barrier between me and the business end of what was happening.
Nope.
But the sisterly bond is strong, and those first few moments after the birth were some of the greatest moments of my life.
Lucy Womack was born at 3:19 pm, and from that moment on I will forever believe in love at first site. The look on my sister’s face seeing her child for the first time was pure, intense joy. Seeing my brother-in-law hold his baby girl for the first time was an unbelievable site. The love I felt for that child the first time I saw her is like nothing I will ever be able to put into words. Even now, typing this a month later, those feelings are rushing back.
And this little girl is at the root of it all, this little girl is what changed my world forever.
