Signs...Superstitions...Stones

Two years ago on New Year's Eve several friends got together for a little celebration.  We had just returned from India a couple months before, and we were still grieving our failed attempts, trying to figure out which path to take to have a child.  We figured we wouldn't be the best of company, but we were thankful that our friends dragged us out to celebrate a bit at another friend's home, instead of staying in and cursing the fertility gods.  As we all proceeded to eat, drink and be (a little) merry, someone suggested that we all participate in a type of "happiness affirmation activity", in which each of us wrote on a smooth stone, some of the things we wished for in the coming years.  As we all grabbed a Sharpie pen, we began to scribble our hopes and wishes for the future on random rocks.  It was a bit cleansing and therapeutic, and of course, all Bill and I wanted to write was... "BABY, PLEASE!" or "Where's the freakin' baby?", or ENOUGH ALREADY, GIVE US A BABY!!!"...but we tried not to focus all of our attention on just one thing that would make us happy, and we each mustered up a few other things that we felt would create some happiness in our lives.  It was, you know, the normal stuff....LOVE, HEALTH, PEACE...winning the lottery! (joke).  We did, though, managed to sneak one baby-related affirmation in there, just for the record.  It was simple...all I wrote on the bottom of the rock was "BABY".  We each shared our affirmations with the group, gathered up all the 20 or 30 stones, and placed them in a rock garden in our friend's yard.  It was a very nice thing to do, made us focus on other people's lives rather than think of just ourselves, and then the party partied on.

To be honest, I forgot all about the rocks and our affirmations, and the activity in general.  We simply continued our lives, this crazy baby journey, and life meandered forward...  That is, until right before we left for our trip to DC.  I had come home from work and Bill was showing me some cute baby presents that our good friends Maureen and Andres gave us.  After we opened the two gifts,  Bill began to recount the story of that New Year's Eve night, where we wrote our affirmations on the rocks and placed them in the garden.  He then explained that Maureen had recently been to the house and the garden where our stones were located.  As she began to pick up each stone and turn them over, in an attempt to decipher what we were really thinking 2-1/2 years ago, and what we really thought might make us happy, she discovered that every affirmation was washed out, either by the sun or the rain, or just from basic wear and tear.  As she came across a particular stone and turned it over, she was taken back when she clearly saw the words "BABY" printed in black permanent marker across the bottom flat surface of the rock.  She picked up the only rock of which anything could be legible, and thought it befitting to gift it to us.  When Bill produced the rock after telling the story, I had a moment (like I often do)...and I thought of all the things that we had gone through since I wrote on that rock...and I was so thankful.  It was very, very special, and we will keep it forever...as a sign that affirmations can be powerful, a superstition sometimes should be believed in, and sometimes, just sometimes, something as simple as a rock in the dirt can make you realize that dreams can come true.

AND SO, I INTRODUCE TO YOU...THE BABY ROCK. 

It stood the test of time, like we did.  

AWESOME!