True Confessions

We have never told Leah and Adam where Emma was born.  We read so many books during my pregnancy about mommies going to the hospital to have the baby with the help of a doctor.  When Emma was born, they came to the hospital to meet her.  When we drive to Indianapolis, they love to point out the hospital where Emma was born!  There has never really been a good time to say, "Oh, hey!  Did I ever mention that Emma was actually born right here on the front seat of our car?!"  The moment has never really presented itself.

That has kind of nagged at me over the months.  There is no wrong way to bring a baby into the world, just ways that make a little more sense in the minds of then-four-and-barely-two-year-olds.  But I started to feel like the longer we waited to tell them The Truth, the more odd it would seem that we kept it from them for so long.  And it is quite an incredible story that certainly helps shape who our family is.

So today, when we were waiting at the car wash at the very same gas station, I turned around and said, "I'm going to tell you guys an amazing story...." And on it went, the very mild retelling of Emma's birth. 

I think Leah said, "Huh", and Adam couldn't take his eyes off of the car getting washed in front of us long enough for me to get a real reaction.

So The Truth was out.  We drove through the car wash, past the lovely hedge of bushes* by which Emma was born, and headed home.  Leah asked a few questions, like, "So did the doctor have to slice open your tummy and pull the baby out and then stitch you back up again?"  (Ahh, the joys of preschool over-sharing) to which I replied "No, but that is how you were born.  No matter how a baby is born-

whether they come out the regular way in the hospital

  or the doctor has to help bring them out through Mommy's tummy-

 or they are born right here in the car, 

the important thing is that the baby is healthy and safe.  That's all that matters."

And by then we were home and on to the next activity.

But later in the afternoon, while we were running through the sprinklers, Leah ran over to me and said, "Mom!  I was so shocked today!  I was so shocked when you told me that...

("This is it!" I thought.  "The moment I was expecting earlier today when Leah is going to tell me all of her thoughts and feelings about learning The Truth.  Brace yourself...")

...pioneers used to live right here in Indiana!"

Oh yeah.  We had that conversation today, too.  Well, that's that.  At least now they know The Truth.

*Side note on the lovely hedge of bushes.  In the spring time the trees around the gas station were in full bloom, and really looked so pretty, so I tried to take a picture of them while I was waiting at a red light.  The gas station sits next to a church and kitty-corner to a beautiful memorial garden-style cemetery that doesn't have any headstones, just rows and rows of flowers interspersed with statues of Christ as the Good Shepperd.  Although I still fully believe that the best place to have a baby is in the hospital, I think Emma picked a very pretty, although non-traditional place to be born.  And I love that I can drive by it every day and smile to myself about her grand entrance into the world.