Ready and Waiting

After months of anticipation,
we're having a girl!

Well, Alanna and Russ are. I'm just the aunt ... ready and waiting. My little brother is having a baby. Wow. The seasons of life.
Funny, I remember rubbing my own mommy's tummy with Mother's Friend when she was swollen with child ... ready and waiting for my little brother to arrive. I remember Daddy pacing in the hospital waiting area, wiping the sweat from his brow. It was the middle of August 1984 ... the Olympics, Mary Lou Retton, Ronald Reagan and Russ Jr., a boy. He, to this day, second to my own children of course, is the most beautiful baby I have ever seen! I mean, the boy has dimples! To me, a soon-to-be first-grader, he was MY baby. The baby I had been ready and waiting for trained me to be a nurturer. Since his arrival in this world, I knew I one day wanted to be a mommy. What a blessing he has been to my life!
So, here I sit ... ready and waiting ... to wrap his little girl up, sit out on the porch swing on a sweltering Louisiana night and rock her to sleep to Linda Ronstadt's "Blue Bayou" just like I did her daddy.
Yes, I'm tickled pink and smitten ... already.