Life

Posted by Dan in honor of Sanctity of Life Sunday last week

23 weeks ago another life joined our family. She was given a blueprint that will infuse every cell of her body. It likely included instructions for blue eyes, sandy blond hair, and fair skin. It may call for curls like those covering her big brother’s head. She may despise the freckles that gradually appear in kindergarten like her father did or unknowingly benefit from her mother’s easily tanned complexion. Her eyes may twinkle and squint like her sister’s when she smiles. She will be like us, but unique.

23 weeks ago I could not have afforded the equipment needed to see her. Nor would I have recognized what I saw. But she has grown up quickly. By 3 weeks she changed from a ball to a tube about 1/10th of an inch long and her body began to separate into layers that would become her brain, nerves, skin, hair, nails, bones, muscles, heart, and lungs. By 5 weeks a small tuck took shape. 5 years from now that tuck will pout, smirk, laugh, possibly dimple, and attempt to wink. Inside it will hold 5 years of memories. Outside it will be framed by bangs that resist her mother’s persistent attempts to keep them in place. At 5 ½ weeks two pairs of bumps emerged. A few months from now I will kiss the small hand that will grow at the end of one of those bumps. Her tiny fingers will clutch my thumb reflexively but I will tell myself it is intentional. Around this same time, her heart took its first rapid beats. Over the next 70 or 80 years it will send 50 million gallons of blood surging through her body.

By 8 weeks the lenses of her eyes formed. In 12 years they will spill tears as she struggles with her first real rejection. She will perk up some over Cold Stone ice cream and a promise to work on her lay-ups over the summer so she has a better chance to make the team next year. A few weeks later she flexed her elbows and knees for the first time. A few years from now her big brother will attempt to cover the scrape on her knee with four Minnie Mouse band aids. Vocal cords stretched but remained silent in the liquid environment of the womb. In 3 years she will use them to sing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” at story time . . . and in the car home . . . and at dinner. . . and when she should be sleeping. By 12 weeks soft fingernails formed. In 7 years she will leave a permanent purple stain on our carpet trying to paint those nails. At 16 weeks, eardrums picked up the sound of her mother’s voice. At 16 years, we may wish she could pick out her mother’s voice a little more clearly.

At 20 weeks, we took a peak into her world. Although only 7 inches long, 100 billion brain cells directed her limbs and responded to sensations within the womb as she moved, wiggled, and waved. From her profile, we saw the gentle slope leading to her miniature nose, lips, and chin. In 6 months, we will look at this picture and realize her characteristic features were already there. It’s the same face we’ll capture in 100’s of toddler pictures (it would be 1,000’s of pictures, but that’s what happens with baby #3). The same face we’ll see in her 6 and under soccer team photo, second grade class picture, and junior prom portrait.

A personality is taking shape within her that won’t come out for more than a year. Will she bounce out of bed too early and too loud or slowly rise long after the sun? Will she play to the crowds or hide her face in mom’s shoulder? Will she be intense and thoughtful or cheerful and welcoming? Will she feel at home in a book, on a ski hill, in a gym, on the river, or on a horse?

She is already our daughter, but we can’t wait to meet her!

“My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them”!

~ Psalm 139:15-17