I believe in books, and in my brother

It feels like I wrote that last post a lot longer than a week ago. Ruminating on my beliefs has taken a backseat to worrying about my niece, although she is doing amazingly well, so hopefully I will be getting back to the ruminating soon. We're going to Atlanta this weekend to see her for the first time. I'm a little scared. I can't even imagine how small she must be, and I'm not very good at hospitals. Of course, I don't think of my brother as particularly good at that stuff, either, and it sounds like he has really risen to the occasion, keeping tabs on all of her medical stuff and keeping us all updated on her progress. It's a little hard to believe that my brother, who won't go near other people's babies, not only has one, but has one that's the size of his hand.

My mom told me that they're going to start reading to the baby, as funny as that sounds, and tape it so that the nurses can play back their voices when she gets fussy. So of course I, as librarian/aunt, went out and bought a bunch of books for them to read. I couldn't find the Dr. Seuss ABC book (that will have to be her homecoming gift or something) but I got One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, Goodnight Moon, A Pocket for Corduroy (one of the top five children's books of all time, in my humble opinion), and--my new favorite--Pigeon Wants a Puppy. I'll wait til she gets a little older to get her my other new favorite--Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog. (Yes, that is actually a book. And it's awesome. I bought it for my cousin's little girl last year.)

Last Thursday when my brother called me, I honestly didn't think I'd be buying books or anything else. It's unbelievable what the combination of science and faith can do. It will still be a long road for them, and a lot of things can happen, but it sure seems like by getting through this first week, the three of them have proven that they can get through almost anything.