"Precious"

I have a very close friend, Kelly. We were fairly close as singles, but then I married. A year later, she married. I had Deanna. A year later, she had Tim. The year after that, I had Dane. A couple years later, she had Kolbe and I had Daelyn. Kolbe and Daelyn are in the same class and are close friends. Timothy was very close to Deanna when he was little, even waking his mother up early one morning and asking her to take him to school so he could see Deanna on her first day. Later, when he reached that "Girls are Ucky" stage, he and Dane became very close and we discovered that they like almost all of the same things. Kelly and I are both married to Engineers that work at SRS.

While we were in England, Kelly found out she was pregnant again. Lest you wonder, she's younger than me, but no Spring Chicken. It was amazing and quite a blessing from the Lord. Since I'm unable to have anymore children and it will be a while before I have grandchildren, I very happily accepted any children Kel could give me. I encouraged her to continue to bear babies for me to spoil.

John was born a little over two years ago. What a miracle. He was one of the most beautiful babies I've ever seen - right up there with Deanna and my niece, Alicia. He was my darling from the very beginning.

I made it a point to go and see him everyday for about the first two months of his life (I'm sure there were some days I missed, but I made a real effort to see him VERY often). I'd stop by, Kelly'd open the door and we'd begin talking while I followed her around. She would always go right to the baby, wherever he was, pick him up and put him in my arms. It was so amazing - this dear friend that I loved so much generously sharing her baby with me.

I'm not sure her husband completely understood this relationship at that time. He eventually caught on, when I was the only person who could get kisses or attention from John. Anyway, John has continued to be my darling boy, despite the fact that he's in the Terrible Two's, and you'll noticed I capitalized that.

Several months ago, Kel produced another baby for me! After not having a male child in her husband's family for many generations, Kelly and Dave had a little girl. I loved that child from the moment I knew of her conception, but she's stolen my heart over and over again since then.

I was able to be in the room when she was born. I'm 48, have 3 children of my own and 12 nieces and nephews, and had never seen a live birth. My sisters wouldn't let me in with them, since I was still single at the time (which I find bizarre - I even thought it was crazy back then, but there was no convincing them) and I had C-Sections. My only hope was that I'd get to see my grandchildren born. Then, without even discussing it in advance, I showed up at the hospital, Kel was in transition, and Dave was standing in the Hallway having just called my house to tell me to hurry.

I'm sure ALL births are amazing, but this one was doubly so. There were some scary moments, but Ainsley Elizabeth was born, a big girl, and beautiful. When it was finally my turn to hold her, I put her close to my face, my cheek to hers, and whispered in her ear of my love for her. She had been crying and screaming and my voice immediately calmed her. Truth is, it might have just been the skin to skin contact, but I'd like to believe she recognized my voice and was quieted by it (it COULD be, you know - I talked to her often while she was in the womb).

I haven't been quite as faithful to see Ainsley as I was Jon-Jon, but I still get to see her very often. She's just precious, which her mother and I comment about constantly. We hold her in front of us, coo at her, smile and watch her smile back while calling her "Precious". Jon-Jon has picked up on this.

The fourth child in a family of boys, Ainsley will have much to overcome in life. We just never expected it to start quite this soon. We've noticed that the boys have picked up our little comments and have begun calling her "Precious" in a Smeagle-tone. Now, if any of you have seen Lord of the Rings, you'll know what I'm talking about. NO ONE, in their right mind, would want their beautiful child connected in ANY way with Smeagle's lust for the Ring. When we hear the boys call her "Precious" in that gutteral, snearing way, we quickly tell them to stop. But, boys are boys, and they like nothing better than to get under our skin.

Even Jon-Jon has taken to calling Ainsley "Precious", except, with him, it comes out "Pwecious"! He even can imitate his older brother's tone of voice and you'll feel the hair on the back of your neck stand up when he calls to the baby. Unfortunately, there's no breaking John of his term for his baby sister. Sometimes, he calls her other things, but Precious seems to be the predominant expression.

A couple of weeks ago, Kelly called me, laughing. It seems she found Jon-Jon with a toy machine gun strapped over his shoulder. He was sneaking from room to room, in his best Smeagle voice, saying, "Precious, where ARE you?"

Kelly added, "My daughter is going to need ministry before she's two!" Hate to break it to you, Kel, but I'm quite sure that will be her life with 3 older brothers. But it's okay. If things get too tough for her, she can come and live with me.