Monday, November 29, 2010

So much can happen in 17 days...

Yes, it's been that long since I last attempted to put my thoughts to keyboard.  I feel somewhat guilty but it's not as if I haven't been through this before.  Just browse any journal I've ever begun writing (but do so under deathly peril) and you'll quickly see that I have a problem following through with a regular dose of self-expression.  However, on this nondescript Sunday night, I have finally found the procrastination tiresome. 

Of course, for those who know me well enough, you may all be wondering how I've neglected writing about the biggest news to have happened to me and my family, well, EVER!  Please allow me to remedy that.  Exactly a week ago, darling, cherubic, Ava Marie Schneider was welcomed into the world.  With her came a wide array of idealistic sentiments flooding my consciousness.  All that is beautiful and good in this world is encompassed in this bundle of flesh.  Words that often fall flat when society becomes saturated with good intentions such as hope, virtue, and purity brought tears to my eyes as I fixated with all the love in my heart at a being known to the open air for only a few hours.  She encapsulates the simplest definition of these words yet exists as the most grandiose example we could possibly attribute them to.  She is perfection personified.  Perhaps that's a wee bit biased on Uncle Jonathan's part.  Forgive me my hyperbolic ways...

...actually, scratch that.  Permit me, if I may, to expound a little, in dramatic fashion, upon the virtues of little Ava's mother, my sister, Anne Marie.  I am literally in awe of my baby sister.  Throughout the pregnancy, my admiration and appreciation grew from an above average brotherly level to an extraordinary one.  She dealt with everything from mood swings to swollen appendages to complete lifestyle changes with the grace and positive resignation of a saint.  On the morning she and her astonishing husband, Thomas, left for the hospital to really get down to brass baby-delivering tacks, she had not only spent the entire night suffering through regular contractions but alerted me to their departure in person, in my room up a flight of stairs!  Fast forward a full day of intensifying labour pain and I found myself sitting beside her room at the Women's hospital listening through a flimsy curtain to all the life-giving action mere feet from me.  It was the most surreal moment of life so far for me.  And if I thought I had been proud of my sister before, what followed was pride exponential!  She was in such pain but pushed through with grit and determination even though she believed she had no strength left to proceed.  She gracefully fought through the traumatic experience with nary a whimper.  I was stunned.  She provided me with the greatest example of fortitude and strength I have ever witnessed firsthand.  This example will undoubtedly fuel me in trying times I have yet to face in life.  All I can continue to say is how astonished I was at the human being my sister has become.

And the human being she has now given life to...





May I, with the power of your family here on earth and in heaven, provide you, Ava, with every opportunity to live a healthy, happy life, filled with all the love one could possibly receive.

I love you, sweet angel...

Uncle Jon.

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