So Olivia is 28 weeks old today.
To me, it marks somewhat of an interesting time in her life. If you recall, the twins were born just shy of 28 weeks gestation. This means that since conception, half of her life was spent intrauterine, with her twin brother Owen, and half of her life has been extrauterine, alone "in the real world", so to speak. I doubt that this is something couples who have babies full-term reflect on when they turn 40 weeks old.
Watching her progress is nothing short of amazing. Today she rolled over belly to back for me for the first time ever. This is major developmental milestone, evidenced by the fact that when you go to Google and begin to search "Age when babies" it auto-completes the search "roll over."
Both Allison and Emma have the first child and second child personas, respectively. I wonder what personality Olivia will adapt. I do believe she's going to have to be a mediator for her older sisters, who already fight as though they're much older.
My thoughts have turned from "what would it have been like to have twins" to more "what would my son have been like?" I look at all the photos of friends' sons and wonder which of their attributes he might share. I recently found out about a family that I imagine is somewhat like ours, at least in terms of craziness. They had 3 boys and a girl, and we would have had 3 girls and a boy. They too lost a child to a sudden, aggressive brain cancer. The difference was their daughter Hannah was 18 months old, whereas Owen was just a few hours old. Another key difference is that we were in US, at a major academic medical center, encircled by friends, family and professional colleagues when we received our diagnosis and prognosis, and they were in Kenya serving at a somewhat rural hospital, though through God's grace, they made it to a hospital where one of the world's renowned pediatric neurosurgeons happened to be on a mission trip as well.
"People were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them; and when the disciples saw it, they sternly ordered them not to do it. But Jesus called for them and said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it."
