Happy dot

The miracle of birth truly is a miracle to me.

How the tiniest of cells from a man can connect with equally tiny cells from a woman to form a dot that in a short time grows into a human boggles my mind. The fact it happens at all is awesome, but add in that modern medicine now makes the majority of these events safe is just as remarkable.


The fact it is an almost certainty the baby has 10 fingers and 10 toes is crazy, let alone those fingers and toes are splilt five on each hand and foot. So many insane twists and turns can happen in the development of a fetus, that most of us emerge relatively looking the same as everybody else is just as mind blowing.


I rarely thought about abortion before Amy got pregnant. If I did, I usually sided with the thought process that it is the mother's body and her choice. But almost as soon as I found out Amy was pregnant, my mind set changed. I started thinking about this tiny, miniscule, speck of a clump of cells that would sommehow, someway, someday grow into a child. Not just "a" child, but MY child.


When did that group of cells become my child? When did that group of cells gain a soul? When did that group of cells develop a personality?

If you ask a mother who has had multiple pregnancies, she will tell you each pregnancy is different. She will tell you each baby acted different in her womb.

I guess you can chalk that up to biochemistry of the pregnancy and the mother and other factors - she weighed differently, she ate differently, the weather was different, etc.

And a mother with multiple kids can also tell you each infant acted differently - one ate all the time, one cried all the time, one slept all the time.

Again, some biochemstry or outside influences may play a role in differences. But it is only a role, and not the reason.

It is hard to imagine the fetus, let alone the infant, acts different because it IS different. It already has a personality of sorts.

Of course I am happy Reese has 10 fingers and 10 toes and all are in the proper place, but the one thing I am most happy about with my daughter is her personality. Strangers in the supermarket come up to me and marvel at how happy she is. She is famous to checkout clerks around town with her high-pitched and welcoming, "Hi!"

Now some will say I had something to do with it, that Reese is happy because I am happy, her disposition reflects the happy home she lives in. I like that train of thought, but I don't put to much faith in it.

Reese has been happy since she was born.

Maybe even before she was born.

She was probably a happy little dot.

p.s.
Amy pointed out my post yesterday regarding addiction to Reese had some errors in it. First, she is a year-and-a-half-and-a-month old. That means 12 plus 6 plus 1, which is 19 months old. For some reason I said she was 17 months old. But 19 months is still about 550 days, and have seen her every single one of those days.
Also, I have had away football games north of Seattle and as far south as Medford, Oregon (Oregon/California border), which is much further away than wine country. My bad.