When a Child Is Born
This past week, our family increase by one beautiful little girl. Unlike when her sister and cousins were born, there was no family around, except her Mom and Dad, of course, to greet her when she entered this world. This didn't seem to bother her at all. She simply got to the tasks at hand, nursing and napping and doing what babies do in the first hours of life. Pictures of our Madeleine crossed cyberspace at record speeds; all of us oohing and aahing at how much she looks like her Mom and how much hair she has. Prayers of thanksgiving rose from various corners - for our new child as well as her safe and simple delivery. Madeleine and Mommy are both at home, now. I plan on going to see them in a few weeks. In the meantime, the birth of grandchild #12 has me contemplating children as a whole. Childhood today is so different from what I experienced over 60 years ago. Today, in a world still battling a virus that has take so many lives, childhood is wrapped in precautions, fear, and