Secret Smiles

Have you ever watched a pregnant lady sitting quietly in the mall, or maybe the library, or even in the park, and seen a little smile cross her face? I can almost guarantee that little smile was inspired by her little Jelly Bean. I know for me, those secret smiles mean one thing: my Jelly Bean is busy rolling and kicking away.

When a mother first feels her baby, they call it "quickening." I think this is an accurate way to describe it. At the first flutter of life, your heart quickens and you suddenly recognize that your life is really about to change forever, and then, to add to the accuracy of the term, time suddenly seems to speed up and WOW--here we are, almost at week 34. For those of you keeping track, it is about 6 weeks until my due date. From the way Jelly Bean is moving now, it is hard to remember the little flutters I began feeling. In fact, there are moments when I'm pretty sure I'm the victim of an intense martial arts routine. But I love it and treasure every single secret smile.