23

I was born on the first day of my dad's last year of law school, twenty-three years ago.  I was the fifth child of what would become twelve.

The older (/wiser) I get, the more I realize just how much my parents had to sacrifice for their children.  Ambitions, living space, new shoes, clean rooms, sleep.  People talk about the "poor years" where a young couple is just finishing up school and may or may not be starting their family, and they go without a lot of things .... I think my parents have been in "poor years" their entire lives.

But the richness!

My son laughed at me for the first time today.  It was the best birthday present ever.

(Replacing all those things in my list ... 'cause I didn't get any of them.)
(Yet.)