Going on Record

I’d just like to go on record saying that in the event that my child ever, despite my best efforts to purge my own discourse of such things, overhears myself, my husband or anyone else refer to the event of his arrival in the world as an “accident” or something “unplanned,” that this is what that means: We wanted you for years before you ever appeared and when we found out you were arriving, it was as if someone called us up unexpectedly and said it had been decided that we were to receive the best present ever. And everyone knows that while sometimes, unexpected presents aren’t always welcome and that it’s great to get exactly what you ask for, there is a very small class of presents that is better than getting exactly what you asked for, and that is getting more than you ever asked for, and certainly way more than you ever felt you deserved.

That is what you are, to us. You are the most wonderful, fortuitous surprise baby ever, and you are, as one of my students told me you would be, daily proof that Someone does, indeed, love me a great deal to have allowed me to share part of my life with you.