On The Eve

So, this is it: the last day without a baby. Maybe we should go to Six Flags or something. I'm sure Nicole would have a great time not riding anything. She's barely able to sit at a dinner table without her belly-full-of-baby bumping into it. Our little boy's gotten so big, I'm convinced he's going to pop out a teenager.

We're scheduled to have the little guy tomorrow. I'm not even sure how to prepare for something like this. I know my life is about to change in a really significant way, and everybody can tell me about it, but actually doing it is a whole different thing.

We've tried to pack everything we could possibly need. We've had numerous talks about parenting. We've improved our home till we couldn't see straight. And last weekend, Nic and I actually took a mini vacation. We went to Le Meridian, a hotel in Beverly Hills, pretending that we were out of town. Going out of town, for real, could have been really dangerous and unpleasant, if she'd gone into labor or something...so we decided to just pretend. But it was peaceful and wonderful spending time together before the big crash of parenthood.

And now, on the eve of our baby's birth, I'm at a loss for words (not literally, hence this blog entry...I'm only ever figuratively at a loss for words, bigmouth that I am). But it's just hard to know exactly what's coming. Not just the baby, but seeing my wife, my sweet girl, in surgery, and in pain. I think it's the kind of thing that I can't really get ready for at all. Like most of the important things in my life, I just have to go do it, jump in and be present..."and the net will appear."

Speaking of nets, I'm very happy to know that so many loving people are supporting us. I'm so grateful to all our family and friends, sharing in this with us.

So for the remainder of the day, we're going to just relax, pray, and enjoy the temporary quiet. I probably won't be able to blog until I get back from the hospital, but I guarantee many pictures and words to come!