Thinking about the Joy(e) of Motherhood

I have a dear friend that is about to have a baby. Her first.

Joye and I

She called me recently, and I missed her phone call. I haven’t had a chance to sit down and really talk, so I haven’t tried to call her back yet. I will. She knows this. I’m kind of lost like that, I go forever without returning phone calls, but then I eventually pick up the phone. And we pick up right where we left off…

Because, well… that’s what dear friends do.

Anyhoo… I have been thinking about her lately as her due date approaches, remembering back six years ago when I was just about to have my first child. I was about as big as a dump truck, and my friend Joye giggled and tried to make light of it to make me feel better.

I will never forget the day we sat in my kitchen talking and I was cleaning a 7lb whole chicken in the sink, getting it ready to go in the oven for dinner,  and she said to me, “you do realize, don’t you, that you are going to pass something that size or bigger through your vagina soon”? Sheer horror set in. Of course we laughed, Joye can always make me laugh, but her point really hit home and I cannot lie: I was freaked out. As I gazed as that chicken sitting in my hands, my stress level suddenly soared. Panic set in. I may have even hyperventilated a little bit….

Fast forward six years and Joye is now the one who is about to pass the chicken… and I’m sure she is having all of the same anxious thoughts that I was, though I’m sure her frantic nightmares are swaddled in a flocked fabric of medium hand and impeccable taste!

Nevertheless, labor is approaching and I’m sure she is having the same kind of panic attacks I did. She is about to enter into the same ‘unknown’ that we all venture into that first time we give birth. She is about to go through initiation into the same prestigious club that all Mothers everywhere are members of…

I wish I could be there like she was there for me the day I gave birth. When I went into labor, Joye flew to the hospital with my necessities: a current issue of US magazine and chocolate! This girl knew exactly what I needed!  I think that was what she brought, though I was a little, well… preoccupied.  You know, with all of the contractions, and my uncontrollable trembling and shaking… I was really a mess. I think she even remembered to bring Big D a six pack of Orange Crush, which was his drink of choice back in those days…. if it wasn’t Joye that brought the Orange, it was Denise…. my other partner in crime. Get this: these two women, two of my very favorite people on earth, were each my friends and were each there to hold my hand at some point during my labor… and who knew that God would intervene in their lives further down the road and make these two friends of mine SISTERS! Yep- a God Wink… !!! (you see those hyperlinked words there? You should really click on it and read that post. It’s pretty neat… just an idea…!)

Whoa… somehow I’m getting way off subject here, aren’t I? Well, it’s not like that should be a shock to you, I’m always veering off in some other direction entirely….

I digress…

Anyways, the day is fast approaching. For all I know, today could be THE day that Joye passes her own chicken… we’ll have to wait and see. I am very excited to welcome her to the Mom Club and to hear all of her battle stories, and hear about all of the ‘firsts’ that she and Matt experience as first time parents…

P.S. I hope I don’t hear from any of you that I was calling her precious child a ‘chicken’. It was just a figure of speech. You know, a metaphor? Duh!!!