Mom Says it IS Like Giving Birth

Writing a Book.

Mom should know - she had my big sissie Rebecca after 34 hours in labor - a beautiful red haired girl who was 10 pounds 6 ouches (that's not a typo, Mom says).  This was the baby to be named Grace - that she gave up for adoption as a college student.

So I asked Mom - why is writing a book like having a baby? This is what she told me - 

It starts with great anticipation, is filled with moments of joy, discomfort, and the occasional sleepless night while thoughts kick from inside, with no place to go.  It takes months and months for it to grow and develop and it seems like the day it is born will never be here.

Then it's done, painfully and protractedly.  Finally, you hold it in your hands, loving it because it's part of you, the most painfully shy, weak, strong, courageous and foolish parts of you.

But remember, there's ALWAYS going to be someone who has never been through the experience that's going to say "Ugly Baby."

It's all worth it.

"Hard times and lean times are only forever if you believe they are.  If you refuse to, they are simply brief glances in which, for a moment without measure or context, will lie in your sights the portent of all  that you think you cannot bear but will, there between the darkness and the light."
 - Saving Grace - A Story of Adoption