My Bestie is Having a Baby!

I had the pleasure of attending a Blessingway yesterday for my best friend Amanda. A Blessingway is originally a  Navajo traditional ceremony to celebrate a woman as she transitions to the role of Mother. I was a little skeptical about this (but as the daughter of former commune-living hippies, I really shouldn't have been), but I had a great time. Rather than have a party for a baby whom none of us have met yet, the focus is on the mother-to-be, and giving her our well-wishes and blessings before the birth. It was so nice to have a forum to celebrate Amanda, who is such a beautiful pregnant lady!

This is us:

I have known Amanda since Kindergarten, have been friends with her since 3rd grade, and have been BEST friends with her since freshman year of high school. She has been with me during some of the best moments in life, and some of the worst, and I can't wait to meet her baby girl Eibhlin (pronounced "Ave-uh-lynn"-- it's Irish) in a month or so.

Some of the activities of the Blessingway included:

Smudging

Lighting a candle

(we all got tea lights to light when Amanda goes into labor)

A relaxing foot massage by Amanda's older sister

(her younger sister is in the background)

A presentation of beads/charms so that when she's in the delivery room she can look at them and think of the love we're giving to her, and (hopefully) that will give her strength for the labor

Holding a naked baby
(Amanda's sister has already potty trained her 5 mo daughter[!] who hung out naked most of the time)

Belly casting

And opening presents!

We also brought and read poems that made us think of Amanda or childbirth. My poem was this one by Marianne Moore:

I May, I Might, I Must

If you will tell me why the fen

appears impassable, I then

will tell you why I think that I

can get across it if I try.

I picked it because it succinctly sums up my views on life and my idea of what childbirth/parenting must be like. Plus it's short and easy to remember. :)

I'm not going to lie, I cried a lot. I went on forever about all these memories I have of her, and the more I shared, the more I remembered more things to share. I may have been slightly obnoxious since no one else knew what we were talking about, but it was a lot of fun to reminisce and to hear other people's stories about her too.

Here are a couple anecdotes:

* When we were in the 4th grade, we were on the same softball team. One time, during practice when Amanda was playing first base and I was batting, I got out at first. Amanda either laughed at me or I thought she was making fun of me, or whatever. So I threw my helmet at her. Our coach made us run to the edge of the field and back. Together. It was awkward.

* Junior year of high school, we had a series of classes together. We sat in the back of the classrooms and pretty much just talked nonstop. Our teachers must have hated us, but didn't split us up or anything. We had maybe a ten minute break between classes, and we would often go to Dairy Mart during the break and get these huge sodas that we would drink during our second class. Whenever I drink those huge fountain drinks (which isn't a lot, thankfully), I think of her.

* Senior year (I think), we went to some play at the performance theater in Eugene (the Hult Center), and because we didn't arrive super early, we had to park on the top of the parking structure. As you can imagine, after the show everyone tried to leave the parking garage, so there was a huge backup of cars and we were at the end. So we spent the waiting time sitting in my car singing songs from Alanis Morisette's "Jagged Little Pill" at the TOP of our lungs. 

I cannot express how much I love Amanda and how excited I am for her to have her first baby. Hooray! 

(it will also give me an excuse to knit some baby leg warmers)