Wednesday, September 05, 2012

A Beautiful Day

When I went berzerk last week, one of the things that was stressing me out was the fact that I'd still not taken two month old baby Mary in to the county clerk's office to submit her birth data so she would officially exist.  If you have a hospital birth, you see, they give you a whole stack of papers and sign off on them right there, and then your baby is a real baby, but since she was born at home, I had to do it myself.  In person.  And she had to come with me.

Boy was I dragging my feet.

Visions of a drab, greying building in the middle of a shopping strip, filled with chairs bearing a not-so-thin layer of grime, danced in my head.  Forcing my husband to take time off of work just so that I could insist my children tag along with me to such a  place paraded even more wildly.  Obviously I've still not, even after two years, become accustomed to the idea that things are different out in the middle of everywhere.

Because when Tommy came home early from work yesterday and suggested that I just bite the bullet and scurry to get the birth certificate information squared away while he stayed home with the other four kids, I was not at all prepared for the building to look like this:


So much lovely everywhere I looked.  A gorgeous day, a light breeze, only one small child strapped to my chest, and all of this...


I never imagined that a visit to an office in the courthouse could be pleasant.  Relaxing.  Fun.  But my afternoon yesterday was all of those things.  And when I arrived home, certified copy of the little one's birth certificate clutched in my hot little hand because they created and printed it and stamped it right there while I poked around their office and oohed and aahed at the original historic details after waiting exactly zero minutes for my turn to be helped, my darling husband was almost finished making dinner.  A delicious dinner completely from scratch.

"How was your day?" he asked as he handed me a glass of wine.

Beautiful.  It was a beautiful day.

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23 comments :

  1. Love when the unexpected happens! Especially when it involves a glass of wine!

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  2. This just about made me cry because in Memphis? The government buildings that aren't downtown are exactly what you described. What a beautiful thing, and I am so glad you have a real live 2 month old now. ;)

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  3. how wonderful! That's exactly what it was like for me when I had my first homebirth. The lady in the records office, where I did not have to wait, knew my midwife and took care of everything quickly. Notsomuch the next time in the bigger city we lived in for a while. Small towns are great, and I am just as happy as you to finally be back in a small town.

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    1. It makes a difference in little ways that you really don't expect. Sometimes we talk about buying a better house closer to downtown someday, but then something like this happens and I say "No. This is right where we need to be."

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  4. New to your blog but loving it already. It is SUCH a joy when God surprises us, isn't it? One of my fav stories that follows a similar vein is about John of the Cross, that you may have already heard and that I only loosely know. Towards the end of his life, he was doing his nomadic wanderings, reforming the Order, being rejected, etc., when he just became so tired he sat on a rock in the middle of a field. He was exhausted and just thought if he could just have some asparagus like he used to have when he was young. And lo and behold--right there next to that rock, was a patch of asparagus growing.

    God's in touch even with our corny sides!

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  5. This one makes me smile. Thanks for sharing it. :)

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  6. This makes me homesick for Michigan.
    And thirsty for wine.

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  7. Awwwww...when we least expect it, God graces us with a gift.

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  8. We have a courthouse like that too. I had a similar experience when had to get official copies of our adoption decree for our taxes last year. Took the 4 yr old with me with great trepidation and she charmed the police officers that staff the metal detectors and no wait at all etc. She came home with stickers and suckers and things and thought it was wonderful. We do prolife candle lit vigils around ours too. We also have very little wait at our license bureau. When we lived in the big city an hour wait was common to get your license renewed.

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  9. So glad it went smoothly! I love those moments when all looks bright and happy and GOOD. For me, those moments are usually directly proportional to the amount of sleep I'm getting ;) It took forever for me to get my third's birth certificate because I went into our little town clerk's office and they looked at me with blank stares when I told them I needed a birth certificate. It was the first time they'd ever done it (and therefore took two trips and a whole lot of waiting with three little kids in tow each time).

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  10. yay for birth certificates!! we got Pia's today....such a great thing to check off the list. i am SUPER jealous you were able to do everything same-day!

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  11. Oh wow!!! Our county courthouse looks NOTHING like that... boo. Glad you had a nice day!!!

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  12. Does this mean you'll be sneaking out there occasionally? :)

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  13. I didn't know that was part of the deal with home births- I hope my experience is as beautiful as yours!

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  14. Wow!! That was the exact opposite of our day so I'm going to live vicariously through you and pretend that I had your day instead.

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  15. I had a sort of similar gift of Grace last year. The day before my 4th child was born, my wallet was stolen, right out of my purse, in the grocery. Driver's license included, thank-you-very-much-you kind and wonderful man who stole it. Grrr... Anyway, I couldn't go without a driver's license for long. So, I felt forced to brave the DMV in the mega-metropolis in which I live with visions of smelly chairs and an hours-long wait with all the biological unpleasantries and discomfort of being 4 days post-childbirth, sitting verrrry gingerly in said smelly and notably uncomfortable for the post-partum woman chairs, etc. And just like you, instead had instant and unusually pleasant service, complete with congratulations on the birth of my sweet girl. What a little gift that was!

    Glad your experience was so positive!

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    1. The smelly chairs! They're definitely a fact of everyone's government-office memories...

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  16. Yay! I am so happy you had this experience. Sure beats the San Diego courthouse (though they are nice there, it's just really ugly and there's always a line).

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  17. Jealous! I left the house at 1215, sat in 45 minutes of traffic, started the name change hearing at 130, over at 3, 1 hour wait for new birth certificate, 1 1/2 hour drive home. Super fun! And the courthouse is 9.5 miles away. I wish I was kidding when I say how much California sucks!

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    1. Oh girl. That's where we came from and I am HEARING you. I think that's why I was so afraid!

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  18. Oh, and pay $5 for the last parking spot in the 5 story structure. Then, you can sit on the graffiti covered bench, put your foot on someone's freshly spit out gum, and pay $25 for the paper that says you can get a new birth certificate. That costs another $25, and is in a different building. Who wouldn't want to pay $1200 a month for the privilege of renting a 600 square foot 1 bedroom apartment in the ghetto here? I know you're just dying to move back!

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