six babies

I've decided that 2007 is officially The Year All My Friends Spawned. It's not entirely accurate--I have a handful of early bloomin' friends that created some amazing, gorgeous kids before this year. I'm sure more of them will have babies after this year. But seriously? Check it out:

1. Feb - Gretchen & Anton welcome Ria
2. May - Bridget & Jeff welcome Aiden
3. Also May - Wendy & Jer welcome Mason
4. July - Sarah & Jeff welcome Russell (they're family, but still)
5. August, I think - Sherri & Dom welcome...??? I don't know, I just today got an email with a baby photo attached and a note that said, "Sorry I've been out of touch, we've been busy."
6. And in November, Brandy & Ryan are due to welcome a girl.

That's six babies, y'all. SIX. And these parents, these friends of mine? Are all, like, really awesome, smart, good-looking people which in my completely biased and superficial opinion is also good news for the whole planet. I'm serious. I love seeing such amazing people repopulate the earth in a world where choosing to have children is more controversial and challenging and unfair than ever. I mean, you have potentially awesome parents thwarted from their hearts desire by their own biology. You have all these unwanted kids put up for adoption, but the cost of the process is extremely prohibitive, and that's AFTER you've invested in a house, a car, & whatever else is needed to create an agency-dictated, kid-friendly environment. And, at the same time, people struggling to parent have to read about idiots like Britney, or teenagers getting knocked up because they don't know no better (sex ed is bad, mmkay?).

And at the SAME TIME, our government wants to take away the whole choice element of this equation all together. Unplanned pregnancy? Too bad, you're having a baby, no choice for you! And not to be all "un-eloquant understatement" about it, but that choice is so freaking important, for so many reasons, the least of which is simply that we women live in a world where every goddamn person has an opinion about our bodies and what we should do with them. We need to lose weight, we need to be sexy (but not TOO sexy, what are you ASKING FOR IT?), we need to be fit, we need to have babies. Furthermore, if you're in your 20's or 30's and in a relationship or married, you REALLY need to have babies, like, NOW. GET ON IT, IT'S WHAT YOU'RE FOR.

GOD. I didn't mean to get into a rant. What was my point? Oh, yes.

This is the world, this is the climate we live in. So choosing to have children and become parents, and everything that goes along with that, is a hugely big deal. To see so many beautiful, awesome, intelligent, talented people making that choice just makes me happy and gives me hope. In conclusion: YAY.