My New baby

In the past my thoughts had never at any time been of the future, marriage, or a family. But now that morning after a long night in the maternity ward beside my Jean, my world has been turned upside down by a tiny perfect little bundle wrapped in a white towel that I was partly responsible for creating. Not only am I now a happily married man, I now have a family and I’m a dad. Well I suppose a man who is going to have a family sorts of expects to have a son. Yes, I sort of expected to have a son. But I hoped to have a daughter and now I have a daughter and believe me that is like winning the jackpot prize, the extra dividend, the big bonus.

A daughter is a bit frightening. A man could hold a tiny son in his arms and know that he holds a known quantity, a male like himself. But a daughter? Now a daughter is different. She is mystery and enchantment and magic and fantasy all rolled up in a small strange little bundle. My baby daughter brought tears to my eyes and she gave me a feeling of a new and powerful responsibility. I suppose if I was holding a son I could have planned walking through the hills, going fishing, and kicking balls around. Teaching him how to hustle to earn a living and about the value of hard cash and know that someday he would venture out on his own and make his mark on the world without making too many mistakes.

But I have a daughter. That’s different. I know I will have to protect my daughter, shield my daughter, cuddle my daughter and keep her safe until the day I die.

My daughter came as a lovely surprise. She arrived in the world with a loud yell. Believe me I was filled with awe as I gazed at her perfection. When she was put into my arms my first thoughts were that she is so small and this world is such a big and nasty place. But I knew that this new daughter of mine with the strange pools of magic in her eyes was something special. She both scared me, and filled me with pride. Yet the tears just flowed down my cheeks as I looked at my Jean lying completely exhausted after ten hour ordeal, then at my new little daughter as I passed her over to lie in her mum’s arms.

I knew right then that my life was turned around. I knew that after all my trials and tribulations searching for my Eldorado. Here in this small hospital delivery room I had found it. Now I really was the wealthiest most successful man in the world.

Our little baby, I wonder what you are,
Are you an angel from heaven, fallen from a star?
With gold dust in your hair,
And the blue sky in your eyes,
Tell me little baby, are you an angel in disguise?

(I fancied myself as a bit of a poet to.)