The good stuff

Today, I'm linking up with Kate Motaung's Five Minute Friday. The rules: Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking. 

This week's prompt: Surprise. 

My husband was ready to have kids long before I was.

I was hesitant – partly because I was unsure how to be both a youth pastor and a mom and partly because I was unsure what to do with a baby.

I mean, I'm an only child. I have no cousins on my dad's side of the family. My cousins on my mom's side live 2000 miles away. There's also a 20 year age difference between the oldest and youngest.

All that to say that prior to having a kid, I had NO experience with babies.

None.

Nada.

Zilch.

As a youth pastor, I was fairly confident I could figure out what to do with a tween or a teen. But a baby?

That I wasn't so sure about.

But then, Hope arrived.

In the 10 months since, I've learned how to care for a baby. I've learned what Hope's cries mean. I've learned how to nurse. I've learned how to comfort her, bathe her, and change her diaper. I've learned how to make her smile and how to make her laugh. 

I've learned that loving her is something I didn't actually have to learn at all. From the moment the doctors laid Hope on my chest, I've loved her with a fierceness and intensity that scares me.

And much to my surprise, I've learned that the baby years I once thought I'd just have to survive in order to get to the good stuff are actually filled with good stuff themselves.