Lately at bedtime Arden’s been asking for me to tell the story of when she was born. Then for the stories about her siblings being born. It’s become her nightly routine. Fitting, because today is her birthday which makes me mindful of her birth.

Three years ago today on a Friday morning Jenn woke me with the news she was in labor. Because Jenn’s previous labor was so quick we were ready with plans to make sure we didn’t need to risk life and limb to get to the midwife in time. We called her mom to come over. Then, because her mom lived two hours away, we called our friend Stephen. He’s only 10 minutes down the road. He still wasn’t close enough.

ALmost immediately after we made the calls, Jenn realized she was ready to deliver the baby. So I put in a movie for the kids and drove her 5 blocks to the birthing center. Then I drove home to wait for Stephen. He showed up a few minutes later and I returned to Jenn’s side. The first thing the midwife told me is that she should’ve been pushing, but wanted to wait for me. She did wait for me.

Less than half an hour later, we had a beautiful new baby. I think we were both expecting a boy, because I checked three times before I was ready to proclaim we had a daughter. That left us stuck on names though. We loved the named Arden, but anticipated using it for a boy. But after very little discussion we realized that was the name for our little girl.

Now she’s not so little. Sure she does little things still. She pronounces it “flamily”. Her shoes are nearly always on the wrong feet. More often its the glimpses of the older Arden that stand out. Her tendency to structure the world around her. How she pays attention to emotions and always looks to tend to the downhearted.

Today she is three. Tomorrow she’ll be grown up. In between we’ll get to help her and love her and challenge her. What a lucky pair of parents we are.