We knew what pregnancy meant: that there would be a baby. We loved them even before they were born. But nothing could have prepared us for the surge of love we felt when we first saw our babies in the flesh. Not even the prior experience of the birth of our first child prepared us for the emotional surge we would feel with the birth of our second. It was all new, as if our lives had just begun.
A friend I'd reconnected with after a twenty five year gap told me she had no children, and therefore, no headaches. I replied that, yes, kids are a pain in the arse, except for when they're not.
All the heartaches and heartbreaks, all the apprehension, and frustrations and anger and teeth-grinding, the sleepless nights and worries and smelly diapers and financial burdens—We would gladly go through again and again for the two earthquakes that shook our world when they arrived, and have kept it shaking ever since.
