I will always have gum

I am going to be an aunt.

I am going to be an aunt and I am very very excited about it.

Well, I am very excited about it – but surely I’m a notch less excited than my sister and her husband who have moved heaven and earth for this to be possible – who have undergone countless tests, medical procedures and heartache along the way.

I have had friends that have struggled to become pregnant – I have heard of people with infertility, and what you should say and how you should say it, and while I’ve always done my best to be sensitive – I never truly realized how devastating it is to someone going through it. Until I watched my sister and her husband go through it.

This is not one of those posts where I’m going to offer you advice on what to do when someone you love is struggling to get pregnant – there are people who do so far more eloquently than I ever could, and I can only speak for what was helpful to my sister (which is to say – not much – it’s been a very difficult road for her).

She called to tell me that she was pregnant the night before I kicked off the Avon Walk in San Francisco in July. I was in the walk hotel when the call came in. I remember jumping up and down and being so tremendously excited.

I still am.

And it’s exciting to hear her talking about baby names, and it’s thrilling to think of baby showers, and it’s fun when I send her a message and say, “That is gonna be one overly-photographed baby!” and she says, “I guess he or she better be cute then, huh?” but I know this baby will be beautiful. Not just because my sister is beautiful – because she is SO beautiful – but because this baby is already so loved. In fact, I already love my niece or nephew so much it almost doesn’t even matter if the baby is a Michigan State fan like my sister. I’ll love it anyway.