Some of the Text Messages I've Received Lately

Two weeks ago, the day before my pregnant sister's due date, I received a picture mail from her showing a close-up of a beautiful baby girl. A Korean baby girl. My sister is not Korean, and neither is her husband. I had a moment of great concern, then remembered that my sister's college roommate - whose parents are from Korea - was pregnant too. I responded with my initial worry to MiddleSis, who texted back:

"That would put a bit of a strain on my marriage."

Yeah.

Do you know the Le-iea story? According to the cousin of a friend of my sister's (and so forth) this is a little girl's name. How would you pronounce it? Apparently, her mother calls her Le-dash-ia. Anyway, here's another message from MiddleSis, this one in response to my question about deciding on a baby name. She was sure she was having a boy.

"I tell the Le-iea story all the time. If a boy it's Bruce. Will call Brodie."

I am so glad that I have a niece. (But of course I didn't say anything negative about the name, once they'd decided!)

On the day of Evelyn's birth, I got a series of messages from my mom and sister as they waited for the tardy doc, including a picture of my sister - suited up for surgery - flashing the peace sign. She called to announce the birth while she was still in recovery (and in pain). For the rest of the weekend, we passed several phone calls a day back and forth.

Two days later, this text came:

"All right - Everly or Evelyn or forever hold your peace."

She decided on Evelyn.

In my family, we talk about just about everything. In Paul's family, there's a bit less of that. Here's a text I got from him last week:

"Grandma died. System is down again at work. Ada still sleeping, though. :) "

Yes, he told me that his Grandma died in a text message. And there was a smiley face in the same message. This is not to suggest that Paul was cavalier about losing his grandmother, just that . . . he's still working on expressing his feelings!

Two years ago, I swore I'd never text. In the past I also swore that I'd never have a cell phone. OK, maybe I'd get a phone, but I'd rarely use it. And never while driving! All this does is make me a late adopter of new technology. I'm still holding out against HDTV and Blue-Ray. But I'm sure that I'll eventually see them as indispensable.

I still don't think I'll ever announce a birth or death to family members via text message, though.