First up, an unexpected one. Some friends of ours have been expecting a baby boy in February. However, unexpectedly, due to a calcified placenta, the decision was made to Caesar yesterday, at 29 weeks. 29 weeks. Tiny Luca is 1.1kg, but apparently doing really well in an incubator. His parents are bearing up too, but the whole experience has shaken us all.
1.1kg. I just tear up thinking about how hard that little guy is fighting, how unbelievably hard it must be for his parents to watch his struggle, not being able to hold him, or connect with him, his mum not being able to put him to her breast and gaze at his little face as she guides him from his previous home to this one.
And I've been thinking about the notion of prayer and almost envied being able to say 'I'll pray for you', to an audience that take real comfort from the words. It just seems so neat and tidy, and so situationally appropriate. A globally recognised way of expressing your love, concern and support to someone in need. It seems so organised.
And I like organised, generally.
But I like my way of navigating the world too, and when I say to my friends that I'm holding them and Luca close to my heart, I really can feel their presence there like a physical weight on my chest. I'm praying in my own way, and I'm praying that this story will have a happy ending.
The next birthday is a very special one. My first baby turned 10 this week. That's double digits y'all - remember how good that feels!
Of course, she's not actually my baby. But she was the first in our immediate circle of friends, and has literally lived around the corner from us for most of her life, so I like to stake a little claim in her upbringing.
Our friend, her mum, returned from a trip to Australia with a visible bump and a shocked expression. She'd been told some years before that she'd never be able to conceive and so, when she started craving avocado's smeared with Vegemite in Sydney the last thing in the world she expected was this....
But it turns out that while camping on the banks of river in a grove of tea-trees in Queensland ... the unexpected had happened... Later she heard rumours that the Aborigines of old thought that place to be blessed, and more recently we had a nervous semi-cynical giggle on reading this ... stranger things have happened I guess?
And last but not least, my youngest brother celebrated his birthday this week. He's a traveller, an academic, a wonderful cook, a considerate and deeply caring brother and friend, and he's just moved into a house down the road from us! Yay!
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