A Good Reason for Blogging
Posted by Eric (July 7, 2005 at 12:00 pm)
I set up this blog a couple of months ago when the world was watching the final days of Pope John Paul II. I’d wanted to start a blog for years but never got around to it. I figured the opportunity to reflect on the life of John Paul and the personal influence he had on me as a young Catholic, an apostate, and finally as a “revert” was a good reason to start blogging. But I didn’t have the time then either.
Now I’m finally writing my first entry. We’ll see if I ever find the time for a second. But the inspiration for this one is the birth of my daughter, Mary Macrina. She is my fifth daughter in a row, after my two boys. We were expecting a boy. I was sure she would be a boy. I was praying for a boy. But God gave me another girl.
She’s adorable. I just spent most of the last hour holding her at the hospital, where her mother, my wife April, is recovering from the unexpected C-section required to deliver her. The honest truth is that I’m disappointed not to have a boy. I’m a little sad that my dream of my two sons—Nate (13) and Sam (11)—getting to play with and mentor a little brother will never be fulfilled; even if we were to have another boy these two would be teens by then.
But I am not disappointed that Mary Macrina is a girl. Does that make sense? I’m delighted that she is who she is—a sweet, adorable, calm, tiny little creature that God in his great mercy has deemed me worth to father.
May God grant her many years!