Thump

It’s there…thump…pause…thump….listen for it…thump…an actual heart beat. A tiny, only audible in the exam room, heart beat, but there’s no denying it, it’s there. Yesterday, my co-worker showed me her first sonogram of my 6 inch pseudo niece or nephew. Thump. Yup, that was my heart being taken (who are we kidding? freely given) away. I’m bigger so I get the thump with a capital T.

She and her husband don’t know it yet, but I’m going to be a pseudo aunt (it’s a practice I’m increasingly falling into since I’m afraid the reality of actual blood related nieces and nephews is years away). You can’t have too many cool aunts to help baby sit right?

It’s startling how quickly things fall into perspective when you’re looking at a fuzzy black and white image of an inexplicable miracle. Yes, I was a bio major…I know how babies are made, I’ve taken evolution and genetics…but those don’t come close to explaining this stirring spark of life.

In the past few weeks while we’ve been obsessed with spring projects, a couple of cells have quietly grown into a being with a heart and even a profile (although we can’t tell whose nose it has yet).

And as I try to imagine Grandpa as child, I can’t help but smile.