For Life
The folks over at Brain, Child have been revisiting some of their favorite contributions from 2014. One of these pieces is an essay by Sarah Kilch Gaffney, entitled For Life. It recounts the reasons why Sarah and her husband, Steve, decided to name their child Zoe. You see, Steve had been diagnosed with a brain tumor at the young age of 27, but still wanted children. And so did his wife. Two months after the diagnosis, Gaffney became pregnant with a little girl. "We named her Zoe because it means 'life' and we could think of no meaning more fitting for our child," writes Gaffney.
Gaffney's poetic account of their decision reminded me of our own Zoe, a healthy little lady born almost 13 years ago. She's blossomed and grown since then into a unique soul--stubborn like her parents, but sweet as an angel. But when Zoe came into this world, it looked like she needed a little help, a little life, if you will.
Let me explain. Around the time of Zoe's birth (and Talia's, because in this house, you can't have one half of a twin pair without the other), but before she lived outside my uterus, Zoe was known as Baby A. I didn't want to know the gender of the twins before they were born. And since two babies inhabited my body, the doctors referred to them as A and B. (You probably know how doctors use this system already, but I'm informing those who don't.)
Since we didn't know what the gender of the babies would be, Tim and I put together a list of names we liked. Zoe Annabelle and Talia Clarice rose to the top of the girls' list. I can't remember what we had written for boys. But before I went into the operating room for the c-section, we never discussed which baby would be given which name. We just knew that if we had two girls, one would be Zoe, the other Talia.
Well, as many of you know, the reason for a planned c-section was Zoe: she blocked the exit with her wisp of a bum. And maybe due to her position, or maybe not, when the doctor extracted little Baby A from my womb, her body looked blue. She need some massaging and a little bit of oxygen. She scored lower on the Apgar than Baby B, and Tim, who stood on the sidelines, watching the entire debacle, made a quick decsision.
If anyone needs a little life, it's Baby A, he said.
Our story ends well. As I said, Zoe will turn 13 in a few weeks. But over the years, I've noticed a few things about Zoe (holding onto viruses longer than Talia, for example) that make me think Tim really did choose her name well. Like yes, she needed a little life then, and maybe sometimes, she still does.
Gaffney's poetic account of their decision reminded me of our own Zoe, a healthy little lady born almost 13 years ago. She's blossomed and grown since then into a unique soul--stubborn like her parents, but sweet as an angel. But when Zoe came into this world, it looked like she needed a little help, a little life, if you will.
Let me explain. Around the time of Zoe's birth (and Talia's, because in this house, you can't have one half of a twin pair without the other), but before she lived outside my uterus, Zoe was known as Baby A. I didn't want to know the gender of the twins before they were born. And since two babies inhabited my body, the doctors referred to them as A and B. (You probably know how doctors use this system already, but I'm informing those who don't.)
Since we didn't know what the gender of the babies would be, Tim and I put together a list of names we liked. Zoe Annabelle and Talia Clarice rose to the top of the girls' list. I can't remember what we had written for boys. But before I went into the operating room for the c-section, we never discussed which baby would be given which name. We just knew that if we had two girls, one would be Zoe, the other Talia.
Well, as many of you know, the reason for a planned c-section was Zoe: she blocked the exit with her wisp of a bum. And maybe due to her position, or maybe not, when the doctor extracted little Baby A from my womb, her body looked blue. She need some massaging and a little bit of oxygen. She scored lower on the Apgar than Baby B, and Tim, who stood on the sidelines, watching the entire debacle, made a quick decsision.
If anyone needs a little life, it's Baby A, he said.
Our story ends well. As I said, Zoe will turn 13 in a few weeks. But over the years, I've noticed a few things about Zoe (holding onto viruses longer than Talia, for example) that make me think Tim really did choose her name well. Like yes, she needed a little life then, and maybe sometimes, she still does.
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