Monday morning, I received a video on my phone. It was one of my young cousins delivering a very important message: “Hi James David, brother’s on the way and he’s doin’ fine. Bye.” Then she repeated the message after some prompting and that was that. The message was delivered with the sort of innocence that only a child can have, oversized decorative candy cane twirling in her hands and still wearing her pajamas. Her little world has changed forever—now she has a baby brother and is a middle child. Given her repeated insistence that she is not a baby, though, I’m sure she will come to embrace having someone younger in the house. By early afternoon I had received several pictures of my newborn cousin.

I no longer use Facebook and have not even responded to the text pictures, which I probably should have done. Alas, this post is my way of sharing how excited I am to welcome another member into the family. It will be at least a few months before I can meet him in person, but I look forward to holding him and just watching him sleep (fingers crossed) in my arms—there is nothing quite like holding a baby and thinking about all the possibilities for its life. A few of my law school classmates have also had children in the last month, and all of these babies have offered a stark reminder that some things matter a whole lot more than everything else.