Father's Day

picture by me

My mother and grandmother came into town this past weekend for my sister-in-law's baby shower. My little brother is expecting his first bundle at the end of the summer. Being nearly three years older than my brother and married for a year longer, I was expecting to have to field a lot of, "so, when are you and J going to start to have children . . ." but was relieved to completely avoid any such inquiries.

The shower, as far as showers go, was really quite nice. I was in charge of decorations and they turned out swimmingly (if I do say so myself), the food was delicious, the group of ladies were great.

Only a few times during the afternoon did I let my mind drift off to thinking about my own much less round belly. Mostly because L and I started this whole baby-making process around the same time. We talked about how much fun it would be to be pregnant together. How our little ones would be such close friends. Although it took L a few months to get pregnant, she did. And with each successive month , that hope of "sharing" a pregnancy became smaller and smaller. Though, I'm still going to believe that while they might be a little further apart in age, our children will have the closest of friendships.

Because my mother was in town, the evening before the shower, we went to church. The Catholic church in our neighborhood only had a noon mass, so we went to one just a little further away.

St. Ann's

This, according to my mother, was a good thing, because (I confirmed this by Wikipedia) St. Anne is the patroness saint for childless people. Apparently, according to the bible, Anne and her husband, after years of childlessness, were visited by an angel who told them that they would conceive a child and they did.

At one point during the mass, the priest said something to honor all of the Father's for Father's Day. I leaned over and whispered to my husband that I hoped so very much that he was a father on that day, that there was a little bean just beginning to grow. Seeing his face, acknowledging and so wanting for the same thing, my heart just about broke.

But, if I was right, well then maybe soon it can be swelling with joy.