Preparing by the 40s

A couple weeks ago, when (my sister) Lora was here at the end of our road trip through France, I was explaining to her how weeks are a better measure of the length of a pregnancy, that it's actually not 9 months but 40 weeks (right now we are at 32 weeks). A few days later, I realized that this is quite Biblical - preparing one's self for something in 40 days/years. Moses spent 40 years preparing the Israelites to enter the Promised Land. Noah had to wait 40 days to leave the ark and start all over again. Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness.

Although I'm anxious to see this child, to meet him/her and find out what Baby is like, I guess this helps put things in a little perspective. There must be something to the number 40 - it must be good in some way. Baby certainly needs 40 weeks to be created (I don't want it to be born before it's fully developed), to be strong and healthy, so I must need all that time to prepare for Baby's arrival too.

On Sunday, I had a good conversation with a woman at church who had a baby 4 1/2 months ago. I was telling her how strange it is to have a baby on the way, to know the baby (because we've been living with it for the past several months and know it's been there since its very conception) but to not know it (because we've never actually seen it and interacted with it). She told me about her feelings toward her new baby - that although it's too young to show its personality, she still treats him with respect because it has a personality waiting to reveal itself and a soul. It's human, in other words. She said I would need to wait about three months until Baby "evolved" some more and started to get control of itself. So, although in a short two months' time, I will finally get to see Baby and meet this new person in our lives, I will have to wait a little longer after that to really start discovering what type of person he/she is. (Again, my first instict with Baby will be to invite it out to lunch so I can ask it, "So, tell me about yourself. What do you like? What do you like to do?" - the way I would get to know a new acquaintance in my life.)

So, we're just biding our time, waiting for 40 weeks to be up.