BIRTH-days

so james, my little brother, is turning 30 today.
it's crazy to think that on this day 30 years ago,
i was at a birth center waiting for him to be born.
i can remember being there, and hearing my mother making the
normal sounds of a woman giving birth,
sounds that i would go one to hear dozens of times in my career as a doula.
two things happened that day...
i was given a brother to love
and i was given an example of birth in it's most natural form.
my mother's birth stories shaped something on the inside of me.
i was handed down trust in the process that God created...
what a gift.
happy birthday james.
happy BIRTH-day mom.

"we have a secret in our culture, and it's not that birth is painful. it's that women are strong." -laura stavoe harm