Welcome Back…

A recent trend on facebook has people looking up the #1 song on the American  Billboard the week of their birth.  1976 was a great year for popular music.  Earth, Wind & Fire, Queen, Parliament, Paul McCartney, The BeeGees, The Who, Thin Lizzy, Neil Sedaka.  There was something for everyone.

So, I googled and waited patiently.  Expecting to find a long forgotten hit song or maybe an old favorite, a KC & The Sunshine Band song if I was lucky.  I have laughed along with many of my friends as they have posted the song from their birthday week, some of which have been more foretelling than their parents might have guessed at the time.

And what did I find?  John Sebastian’s Welcome Back.   Yup.  A TV theme song.  At first I wasn’t thrilled that it was a song to celebrate the return of Gabe Kotter to the classroom that heralded my birth.  (Although a soft spot for Vinnie Barbarino and the rest of the Sweathogs surely exists in me.) But the more I think about it, the more I think it’s perfect.

And even more perfect that I listened to this song last night.

Because I am ready to welcome someone back to my life.  I don’t buy in to all the spiritual new age woo that you might think.  But that which I do believe, I believe with my whole heart.   And if there is one thing that I know it is that your children, they are and have always been yours.

Genetically speaking, of course, they could belong to no one else, but I think the parental bond goes beyond genetics.  Even more than I believe MQD and I were meant to be together (and I do think that forces stronger than my desire to have a perfect blind date brought  him to me) I believe that he and Emily knew one another before this life.  I look at the way she looks at him, and the way that he loves her with all of his being and I see it.

The moment Emily was born, the first time I looked at her it didn’t feel like we just met.  I had known her all my life.  Just as she had been waiting for me, for the right time. To come back.

Welcome back,
Your dreams were your ticket out.
Welcome back,
To that same old place that you laughed about.
Well the names have all changed since you hung around,
But those dreams have remained and they’re turned around.
Who’d have thought they’d lead ya…
Here where we need ya…

Well, I did.  I knew they’d lead her to me.  Just as I know that Baby D is right on time.

This morning I woke from a dream a little startled.  In the last 36 hours Baby D has dropped and I can breathe.  And I can sleep.  And apparently I can roll over a tiny bit more to one side than I could before because when I woke, pillow between my knees like a good pregnant sleeper I was just slightly more turned towards my stomach than I have been in recent weeks.   And for a moment instead of worrying that I was no longer pregnant I thought “Where’s the Baby?”

It happened.  Baby D became a baby instead of a pregnancy.  The other day it was KC’s cheesy ballad “Yes, I’m Ready” that made me think I was finally prepared.  And this morning, it was ABC’s Welcome Back, Kotter that made me know it’s almost time.  Just in case there was any doubt I am truly a product of late 1970’s pop culture.

So, c’mon, Baby D…. your dreams and mine, that’s your ticket out.  We’re here.  Waiting to welcome you back.