December 10/11, 2008

This is personal, about my kids, but you're certainly welcome to read it.
But I must warn you... it's extremely complex, and will require your full focus and attention.
Bear in mind, there could be a test.

The dateline spans two days, December 10th and 11th.
Those are two big dates in our family, though the events of those two dates are separated by a quarter century.

Everybody who knows me has heard this story a hundred times, but it's time to tell it again.
On December 10, 1973, my middle daughter Darcy was born here in Nashville at Baptist Hospital.
Twenty-five years (and one day) later, December 11, 1998, my youngest daughter McKensie was born, also at Baptist Hospital.
That's the two of them together in the top photo.

In 1998, when my youngest was born, several of the same nurses and hospital staff who had been there in 1973 when Darcy arrived were still there, and I'm pretty sure they assumed I was back to welcome a grandchild....
Surprise!!

Now don't get me wrong.
I do have grandchildren... three of them in fact.
One belongs to middle daughter Darcy, mentioned above.
The other two grandkids belong to my oldest daughter Jennifer... who is 17 months older than middle daughter Darcy.
Jennifer, though, was born at St. Thomas.
That's her in the second photo with youngest sister McKensie, who's more than 26 years her junior.

The oldest of my clan is my son Stephen.
He was born in Augusta, Georgia... at the same hospital where I was born almost 25 years earlier, and -- get this -- he was delivered by the same doctor who delivered me!
Here's another fascinating factoid... that doctor who delivered us was the brother of longtime U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond.
(For some reason, Stephen likes to downplay that little fact!)
That's Stephen in the third photo with his baby sister McKensie, who's more than 30 years younger than him!

It's all so complicated, yet -- to me -- there seems to be some sort of weird symmetry here, I just can't put my finger on what it is.

Anyhow, at 10 years old, my daughter McKensie moves into double digits this week... while big sister Darcy officially becomes of legal age to run for president, if she so chooses.
And I, for one, think she'd make a fine president.

So I'm writing this today simply as a way to wish happy birthdays for my two beautiful, youngest daughters... and to brag a little about all my kids.

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