I couldn’t stop smiling as my friend Sam placed baby Eden in my arms. Only five days old, she was awake and alert with a beautiful soft head of blond hair.
“She’s perfect,” I said quietly.
Sharon nodded in agreement, “Yes, she is.”
I looked around their living room and remembered the first time I met my friend Kara’s baby Tyler. There were six of us squeezed together on Sharon’s couch, oohing and aaahing over the first baby to join our circle. Eden is the third, and we have three more babies on the way. People laugh when I tell them all my friends are having babies, but REALLY, almost all of my friends are having babies. This past year has been full of baby showers and hospital visits and gender revealing parties and meal calendars. Babies are everywhere around me….crying, crawling, kicking in tummies. It’s hard not to catch baby fever when you’re surrounded like I am.
But right now, it’s just the two of us. Husband and wife. Brett and Ashlee. This is, most certainly, a season to appreciate.
This is a season for sleeping in and hitting the snooze button as many times as our tired hearts desire. A season for leisurely strolling down the aisles of Target, looking at things that I don’t necessarily need, but might consider buying in the future. A season for staying out late with friends and getting (occasionally) tipsy at happy hour. This is a season for enjoying the peaceful silence that fills our house each morning. A season for running away to Greece and leaving town on a whim with no questions asked. This is a season for working—for earning money and saving money so someday when we do have a baby, we won’t freak out (too much). This is a season for hiking. For jumping on trampolines. For watching six straight hours of television. This is a season for doing what we want to do when we want to do it.
This is a season for showing our love for one other, in packed lunches and clean dishes and carefully placed love notes on the dashboard of the car.
This is our season. Let’s not get swept up in anything else but that.
