19 years ago during a big New Hampshire snow storm, Bill and I drove to the hospital in Manchester. I remember watching the snow blow off the roof of the hospital as I was in labor. It was about this time of day that she was born. It's something truly incredible to pick your new baby up and snuggle. She was so precious - as she still is. I remember shaking uncontrollably while they weighed her and wondered what was happening to me! My nurse practitioner said, "Your body is just wondering, 'Where is my other one?'" When I went bungee jumping at Circus Circus two years later I learned that uncontrollable shaking is an after-effect of a big adrenaline high.
Some memories that now seem important when it comes to Faith are:
1. All the hours we spent at libraries. We went to story time at every library in Stamford, some in Greenwich, and she even went to a few in Cottonwood. Later in high school, she would volunteer and help out at the kids programs at the library. The library was a second home to us for many years.
2. The books we read together. I read her Where the Red Fern Grows when she was 8 because I remember Mrs. Searle reading it to us in the 3rd grade and I loved it. We laughed our way through The Willoughby's together. We loved E.B. White, Jerry Spinelli, and Roald Dahl. I read to Faith more than Will and Ivy. Just had more time with my first.
3. In the sixth grade she had some neurological problems. "Silent migraines" was what the neurologist called them. Sickness, vomiting, nystagmus, and numbness - but no headache. The nystagmus has never left her. Her eyes just love to jump about.
4. In seventh grade she had an English teacher that made her love the English language and writing especially. She spent hours and hours in middle school and high school writing. Even when there wasn't an assignment, she made assignments for herself. Lots and lots of poetry with a healthy dose of news articles, essays, short stories and more poems.
Faith loves to laugh. A stranger at the library once told me that Faith's laughter sounded like water bubbling in a brook. I thought it was an apt description. Many family car rides, we have had to get after the kids for laughing too much - to keep it down. Not since Faith left. Now we wait for phone calls to hear that delightful rolling laughter. And Will and Ivy tell me to keep it down - I'm being too loud on the phone with Faith.
Happy Birthday to my daughter who made me a mother for the first time. It sure has been fun!
2 comments:
The ability took write well may have been influenced by reading how her mom made words fit together so perfectly on a blog. You captured such exquisite moments. Her joyous ways. What a treat the world got when Faith arrived.
What a blessing that your first who is so grown up also makes you laugh with abandon. She is a treasure! And I love the theme of words that are the important thing in her life. I also like the books you read to her. Over Christmas Willa read The Willoughby's aloud to all of us again, but the first time for Griff and Eve. Such a great book!
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