A million times this

I'm working hard and don't have much time to post right now, but post I must, because this child of mine, this beloved full grown man who is a paramedic for the Fire Department, a calling since he was ten years old, delivered a baby today!

Apparently, by the time his ambulance arrived at the home of the mother to be, the birth was too far along to chance transporting her to the hospital and so my son and his partner delivered the infant right there in her living room, attended by the baby's father and her grandmother. Mother and infant are doing just fine.

My son called his dad and me as he was driving home, sounding jubilant and exhausted. "Well," he said, "the call I was most terrified to get happened today, and I delivered a healthy baby girl." I thought my poor heart would burst from happiness and pride. My boy did that.

He answered this life-giving call on the birthday of one of my closest cousins, who grew up with me like a sister. That's her, below, enjoying the birds of paradise her family brought her on this blessed day, when her nephew and my son honored us all by bringing a new life into this world, his first time. There may be other deliveries, but I will never forget this baby girl.