What are you looking at?: Made from love

This weekend, I held onto my sister's right leg as she delivered her second baby.

Rosemary Lyn was born on Sunday, September 26, at 3:35 a.m. after five hours of active labor and 20 minutes of pushing. She weighed 7 lb 10 oz and measured 20 inches long. I'm itching to call her Rosey, but that nickname is still undergoing a stringent approval process with Management.

Samantha's labor began with the breaking of her water ten minutes after Luke and I crawled into the guest bed at his parents' house, having decided to make the three-and-a-half-hour trek back home the following morning despite the fact that my sister was overdue and I was scheduled to be in the room with her, to preserve the kids' routines and health and everyone's sanity, all of which can easily break down when you're spending weekend after weekend away from home. Ten minutes after giving in to a wah wah wah fest over everything from the flat we encountered on the way to Sarah and Leslie's wedding to the sixteen hundred dollars' worth of repairs made to that same car, including the purchase of four new tires, to the hundreds of miles we've logged on our hatchback this month, not to mention the gas money and utter exhaustion, with October looking no better for the wear. THAT is when Dan called to tell us that Samantha's water had broken and they were on their way to the hospital. Bless children for so easily putting life into perspective.

The proud papa.

Mother and daughter, happy and beautiful. My sister was amazing throughout the entire laboring process, working through contractions, bearing down when called for, and simply not giving up. She described it as a wonderful birth, and I am so grateful she got the chance to experience things differently from her son's delivery two years ago. No forceps, no episiotomy, just good old-fashioning pushing and a natural first-degree tear that took one stitch to fix. Mazel tov, truly.

It is amazing to me that I watched every part of this little person come into the world - head, shoulders, feet, placenta, all of it. I can't even say that about my own children. Literally, it took my breath away.

My placement in central Indiana often makes it difficult to participate in my family's life as fully as I would like, and there were several potential road blocks that could have prevented me from being there for my sister as well. But in the end I was there, and I can't thank God enough.