And She Is Twenty

Ten days after my first anniversary I gave birth to my first child, my only daughter. She was unplanned, unexpected, and her creation made us change our plans for our immediate future. We were living in Decatur, Georgia. Doug was a grad student in a program that wasn't meeting any of his expectations, and I was unable to find work because every interview I went on went something like this:

Hiring Manager: You're not from around here, are you?
Me: I live in Decatur.
HM: But... you're not from around here... I can tell. Where are you from?
Me: (sometimes wise-assishly): DE-CAY-TER. Perhaps you done herd ovit?
or
Me: (honestly): We recently moved here from Boston. My husband is a student at Emory. I'm looking for a job so we can stay here in Atlanta.

I never got the job, whether or not I was flip with DE-CAY-TER or the honest truth.

We moved back up here to Massachusetts and stayed with friends who just had a little girl themselves. She was born on my wedding day. She prevented her parents (her mom being my best friend) from attending my wedding.

Jess was born right before a Simpsons episode on a Thursday night. I remember telling the doctor to hurry up and finish with her because the Simpsons were coming on, and he looked at me funny. But ... it was true. I wanted to introduce her to The Simpsons.

Now she is 20.

And now there are 2 friends here at my house, friends of hers since middle school, bearing cheesecake and laughter.

It is a very good day.

In other news, my friends had their baby baptized this weekend. I was asked to take pictures for them at the baptism and at the party. And when things were especially crazy and she needed a bottle, I took her. And had some super awesome cuddle time with her. And her mom took this picture of me. I am the baby whisperer sometimes. This particular baby digs me.

This is me, talking to Poppy. When she is 20, Jess will be 40. Keep that in mind.