Your Favorite Memory

I've thought about this prompt for the last several days and for much of today especially. I'm going to go with my first thought, though I've spent a good while going through a rolodex of happy memories. And it's not one, it's three. The birth of each of my children. All three of my childbirth experiences were 100% natural. And not because I planned it that way from the git-go. Surprise! I do pregnancy awful, but I do childbirth like a pro! Everyone's story is different and every one is beautiful in it's own way. Planned and smooth, shocking and difficult, and everywhere in between. 

I'll spare you the details, unless you want to sit on the patio with a glass of wine and swap stories. Except one for each of them: 

Erin: We were utterly clueless, made our way to the hospital in morning rush hour traffic, with no idea how fast this was gonna go. Brian "dropped me off" and the nurses sent him to park the car -- "You've got plenty of time!" -- A few minutes later, the doctor was barking orders to "go find her husband!" He made it, though no other family members did, and Erin immediately turned every last one of us into crazy people with our love for her. She's been teaching us what love looks like ever since.

Luke: We at least had in mind that time might be of the essence. My best friend made it in time, but my mother and sister did not. He was even faster than his sister. And while they're great friends now, they spent most of their childhoods in competition with one another. I was terrified I could not love another child as much as the one I already had. I was so wrong. He has been joy from the instant I first laid eyes on him. 

With Dylan, we pretty much knew by this point how fast it was gonna go and my doctor at the time was a bit if an old hippie. He asked me what I'd think about trying a birthing chair and I said, "Why the heck not?!" Not a single nurse on the floor had witnessed such a thing so I ended up with quite a crowd attending Dylan's birth (with my permission, of course). There was a lot of laughter in the room that day. He came into this world uniquely and hasn't stopped making waves, or making us laugh, since. 

As many things as I've forgotten over these six decades, I remember almost every minute of the process of my kids entering this world and changing me forever.