Announcing the smallest leaf on my family tree...

Regular readers of 100 Years in America and my other blogs have surely noticed that new posts from me have been few and far between for awhile now. In fact, I have recently had a fellow blogger write to confirm whether or not I had fallen off the edge of the earth, as she had assumed, since I have been absent from the blogosphere lately.

I am happy to let you know that I am alive and well and finally ready to announce to you the "project" that I have been working on for much of this past year: a beautiful baby boy, the newest addition to our family tree!

Needless to say he takes up much of my time (day and night) and energy (how needy we are when we begin life in this world!), but I am loving every moment of my time with him during his soon-to-be-fleeting babyhood, as is the rest of the family. We are in awe of him as we watch him develop day by day. In fact, we are constantly studying him to see if we can discover who he most resembles and whose personality he might take after.

With my interest in family history, my wondering goes even further back than the immediate generations previous. Along these lines, I enjoyed reading this poem written by Lucy Maud Montgomery about the mystery of the birthright given to the newborn baby by all of the family members who lived before him:

Genius

A hundred generations

have gone into its making,

With all their love and tenderness,

with all their dreams and tears;

Their vanished joy and pleasure,

their pain and their heart-breaking,

Have colored this rare blossom

of the long-unfruitful years.

Their victory and their laughter

for this have strong men given,

For this have sweet, dead women

paid in patience which survives;

That a great soul might bring the world,

as from the gate of heaven,

All that was rich and beautiful

in those forgotten lives.

~ Lucy Maud Montgomery

As I've written before,

A newborn babe brings
light to the house,
warmth to the hearth,
and joy to the soul,
for wealth is family,
family is wealth.

~ Irish Proverb

Our new little boy has brought light, warmth and joy to our home this year. We are truly rich beyond measure!

Thanks to my regular readers that have been checking here and there to see whether or not I had emerged from hiding. I'm not sure when I will get back up to my previous level of activity in the blogosphere, but it will only be a matter of time, I'm sure. After all, now I have another member of the family to which I must pass on all of the wonderful family history that we share!