Monday in the wee hours of the morning when the sun had not yet risen my friend did something magical.  Amazing.  Incredible.

She gave birth to a baby girl.

While I curled up in blissful slumber with my beautiful (feverish) child and darling husband she was just a couple of miles away laboring to bring a new person into this world.

Though many of my friends have children, something strikes me about this particular birth.  Maybe it’s because I’ve known her since I was 18, maybe it’s because my daughter adores her son but most likely it’s because her littler girl came early.  She was due in 3 weeks so she wasn’t so early that it was worrisome, just early enough that when she called me last night I was enchanted.  You see I saw my friend T and her husband M about 12 hours before their little girl arrived.  She seemed tired and her stomach was tight, tight enough that when I touched her belly I asked if she was having a contraction.

And then they went home and ate cookies and did whatever else until the time came and they had one more member of their beautiful family.  Sunday there were 3 of them…  now there are 4.

Blessings on the whole lot of them.