Once Upon a Time

Once upon a time, a wonderful baby girl was born in a little city high in the Sierra Mountains. She was born in the little hospital there amidst several other babies; it was on the day of a full moon. She was the most beautiful; people would peer in and say “Ah, what a beautiful baby.” Something unique about her was her alert and focused gaze, taking in this new world around her. At birth she and her mother spent a timeless moment gazing into each others eyes.
Three days later they left that hospital, on an April afternoon through streets and landscapes covered with snow. She was bundled up carefully against the cold early spring day, especially since the ride home would be in a Volkswagen with a broken passenger side window. She rode home in her mother’s arms while her father drove; you see it was before the days of the law about child safety seats.
Just like the babe of 2000 years ago and many babes since, she had visitors from near and far and gifts were brought to honor and stand in awe of her arrival. Her fathers sister had come to stay with her father while her mother was in the hospital for 3 days (yep, this was before the time of sending mothers home on the same day). Her grandmother came every other day to bring the baby freshly laundered swaddling clothing. Her father’s good friend Jim came with his wife from France, Ann. He went in to see the baby in her cradle and she smiled at him; he came out of the room with a big smile on his face “She smiled at me; she looked up at me and smiled.”
At 11 days old, the mother inquired of her friend Sharon who had also been expecting a baby in March, “what did you get?” Yes, this was before the time of ultrasound when everyone knew the gender of their baby before they were born. Sharon was not too happy, “I haven’t gotten anything yet”. The mother of the baby girl prayed for her friend and that the baby could be born soon and she took her baby girl over to visit her very pregnant friend. The next day, on the new moon, baby Adam arrived.
Like the baby of the ages, her parents were to take her on a journey, not to Egypt but around the country to visit the relatives that would not be able to visit her in the high mountains. The parents were so delighted in their baby girl they wanted to share her with all her relatives. She had the rare blessing of having many living grandparents. On her father’s side were both of his parents and both of their parents and even a great great grandmother. On the mother side were both of her parents, one great grandmother, a great step-grandfather, and another step-great grandmother. So, they went on a journey and visited all the grandparents, aunts and uncle, except the one great great grandmother. Their journey took them to Santa Cruz, Orangevale and Los Angeles California, to Phoenix, Arizona and finally to the island of Oahu in Hawaii.
To be continued . . .