Ready, Set...

So our daughter's due date is tomorrow, March 13. As every day, hour, and minute passes, the anticipation continues to build. I have talked to many people, specifically regarding the birth of their first children and it seemed to me (seemed) that all of them came well before their due dates. Several days to a couple weeks (to more for some, as well). I was born two weeks in advance of my scheduled arrival date. However, this is certainly not the case here.

Sure, there were people and articles that informed me that for the first born child, going right up to or beyond the due date is quite normal. However, these sources I immediately held at low regard... do they even know what they are talking about?! Hello, I know exactly what I want to hear, and you are certainly not saying it!

This period of waiting I liken to the moments an athlete waits for before starting a run. Those seconds that a speed skater waits crouched upon the ice, ready for the gun to fire. When a skier is standing at the top of the hill anticipating the beeps to let them know the clock has started ticking. An ice skater skating to the middle of the rink stalling until the melody they have listened to hundreds of times before start playing through the crackling speakers up above.

For each, a million things could be going through their head, all rushing through in just a few seconds. "I really should have not skipped practice that one time," "Maybe that cheeseburger was a bad idea last week," "I'm ready for this!," "This is the moment I've spent all this time preparing for," "This is it!"

Typically, this all takes place in about five seconds. However, what if these moments of waiting took 10 seconds? What if they took a minute? What if it took 10 minutes for them to get rolling? Can you imagine how eager they would be to finally start the experience they had been building up to for seemingly forever?

This is where I am. Ready to start but still waiting for the gun, the beep, the music. It reminded me of a moment from a movie I watched in childhood many times, captured by YouTube, linked below:



I'm ready. I'm set. Just waiting.