waiting for miss azariah

so I am now counting down for the arrival of my 2nd niece Azaria any day. My sister thought she was due on the 28th but was confirmed that she is actually due tomorrow! we'll see if that happens...i am really excited to meet my new niece and am especially excited to have a new addition to our "Steen" family. I was talking with a friend yesterday about life and death and have always believed that when people leave the earth they make room for new lives and new focal points. As my first post stated, my father died at the beginning of the year and now we are awaiting the arrival of two nieces one in march and one in july. These are the first girls since Faziah who is my oldest niece and i truly believe that there is wisdom in the space between them. My family currently has 4 nephews and 1 niece but will soon have 3 and i think that a part of that is because my dad is gone. I think that there are different skills needed to raise girls than boys and i'm not sure that any of us would have been prepared to devote the time that it takes to support the growth of girls before this point. I say we, because we are a set of 8 and we all have some contribution to make in the lives of our next generation and are all intent on making sure that their life experience is better than ours whether it is as children, niece or nephew. And while we will all miss my dad in our own ways, his absence allows for some healing and teaching that i don't think could have happened with him here and i think he knew that. Anyways i'm really excited and waiting anxiously for my new little niece!!!