birthday at last

12/27/10 at 3:07pm. 6 pounds and 15 ounces. i have never felt birthdays were anything worthwhile until yours. you are the most beautiful creature imaginable.

Layne Karin out cold after a good feeding today:

this is it

i am sitting in the room you will be born in. just as we were about to get to sleep for the night, suddenly contractions began like clockwork every 90 seconds to 2 minutes. this was very confusing since we expected to have a long amount of time of consistent but short and well-spaced contractions. just about time that we needed sleep came the realization that this was real labor.

so, i just had a doze, soothed by your little 160 bpm heartbeat. everything is ready for you. heart.... keep it up. you can do it.

the story so far

just under 7 years ago, something strange happened.

january 24, 2004. Someone decided to leave a comment in a stranger's journal. Something she never, ever does. [Certain types of journal-writing creatures only enjoy the writing and also exploring what others have written, but don't really use it for back and forth or collaboration. We keep to ourselves, the introverts we are.]

They got interested in everything written in the other's journal. So they started conversing with instant messaging. A week later, (even more strangely for these introverts) they decided to get together...

On December 1 2004 they got married.

Over 6 years, so much has been accomplished. We have transformed our separate selves, growing together- meeting very significant goals along the way. We have fought for the identity of our partnership, discovering our own intricacies of personality. We have worked for better health. We have secured education & solid income even within what's viewed by most as the most challenging economic climate yet. We've earned the respect & support of others, though not everyone. We've lost friends and support along the way too. We've created a form of unity that is not understood by most.

Now it is time for Layne, the right time. We will fight for you as an essential element of our unity. With purpose we have chosen to bring you in to our life. You transcend everything else we've worked for, you are all that matters now. Life didn't exactly make sense, something necessary wasn't here, before.