You might think, from the title, that I’m about to tell you how incredible it was to witness the birth of my new niece, Penelope, this week. You’re not entirely wrong. Being allowed to be in that room, to share this moment with my sister – my other half – is beyond anything I can put into words. To be one of the first pairs of eyes on this wonderful new tiny human, it’s a gift that I will treasure for the rest of my life.
But the love I’m speaking about is not that.
Penelope’s birth moved a lot slower than her brothers before her and so I had much more time to sit back and just watch and what I saw before me was beautiful. While most eyes were on Cindy, watching her work through the pain, my eyes spent far more time on my brother-in-law (or Brother as he is more affectionally known) and the look on his face never changed. Now, I cry at everything, I’m a sentimental fool but watching him, watching her, actually brought me to tears. The look of pride and love was more than just an expression on his face, it radiated out from him. He knew that there was nothing he could do to make the pain easier, to make this adventure any less uncomfortable, to bring her any sort of relief and yet with every contraction, his smile grew. Maybe it was growing from the knowledge that he was getting closer to meeting his daughter, but that’s not what it looked like to me. He looked like a person who was so proud of his partner that he couldn’t possibly keep it inside. The strength of his feelings for her, for their family, took over every part of him and for a moment it took my breath away knowing that I was witnessing true, uncomplicated, unconditional, love. And in that moment, I have never loved him more.
So while I’m so thankful to Brother and Cindy for letting me be beside them to welcome the incredible baby Penelope into the world, for letting me be there, again, to watch our family grow larger in an instant, today I’m even more grateful for the moments before that showed me that love never wavers, never fails and is truly in the moments.
