When we used the off-the-counter pregnancy test and discovered that we were having a baby, it was a very surreal feeling. Faith looked and felt the same, yet our lives would be forever changed by an individual with whom we would be very intimately linked, yet hardly knew at this point. We actually had to consciously remember that we were expecting our first child.
I came back late yesterday after a game of basketball. I spent some time talking with the bunch off tweens (twenty-somethings) who lived in my neighbourhood. When I got home, it was 11:30 at night and I expected Faith to be asleep. Instead, I heard the growl of this half-sleepy, very hungry bear my wife had become.
“I’m dying”, she says, refering to her hunger. I offer to buy some food back. “I want sweet-sour pork ribs”.
Gee. That’s a tall order for anyone at this time of the night. Somehow I instinctively put on my shoes and started running. It didn’t seem like a ridiculous request at that time.
Thank God I was able to find exactly what she wanted at a small eating place near our house. Making a judgement call, I ordered a large rack of ribs to go. She looked like she could eat a cow.
When I got home with my triumphant rack of ribs, she took to the food like a supermagnet. When I stopped her mid-munch to give thanks for the food, there was this whimper of childlike rebellion. I kept the prayer short and watched her tuck in.
She had barely begun when she looked up and proclaimed that she was done with the meal.
Just as well. I helped myself to the food. And while my head was down and I was defenseless she said, “I feel like green peas for lunch tomorrow”.
We had no green peas in the fridge. I doubt anyone sold frozen peas at midnight. That was when it hit me. We’re really having a baby, and it’s going to change our lives forever.
