20 YEARS AGO TODAY

I am working full-time this week. Can't wait to sleep in tomorrow! As I sit here waiting for my first group of 4th graders to come in (I'm a Title teacher this week), I have a few minutes to reflect on what I was doing 20 years ago this morning. Duluth had just been deluged with 36 inches of snow and we could barely shovel our way from the back door to the detached garage for my weekly doctor's appointment.

I had been on bed-rest for pre-term labor for 6 weeks, and the previous week had been a really tough one. Back labor had kicked in, and sleep eluded me. Day and night I cringed as biting pain made its home in the center of my lower back. I was so delusional from sleep deprivation that I thought my pillow was Kirby Puckett. The Twins had won the World Series a week before, and I had occupied my long days with 24/7 baseball coverage on TV.

Seeing how miserable I was, knowing Boomer (yes, nicknamed that because he was jumping around inside of me for 9 months causing endless nausea) had reached 5 pounds the week before, and feeling his lungs were well enough developed for him to be born, my merciful doctor decided to induce me on that Wednesday. In 48 hours, we would have our son. I would spend Tuesday released from bed rest to get a bit organized, and we would go in Wednesday morning, November 6th, for induction.

But my stubborn wee one was not about to let some medical professional determine his birthday. In the wee hours of Tuesday morning, he let it be known that he was ready to join the world, and did so 8 hours later.

20 years ago today, I had no idea how my life would change for the next 20 years. I had no clue about how to change from woman/wife to mother/woman/wife. I had no basis of understanding how I was going to figure out this new and foreign phase of my life. It was something we had longed for for so long, and now that it was imminent, I was in a world of unknowns.

20 years ago today, life was one color, and 20 years ago tomorrow, it was another.