Once There Was A Little Girl Name Nora - Or How Nora Came To Find Her Family

Once there was a little girl named Nora, or she wasn't really named Nora yet, she was just a little soul floating around the universe waiting to find her family.  Or that's not really accurate either. Nora had already found her family they just didn't know it yet.  Nora had spotted this family way way back when her brother Owen was inside Mommy's belly but since the space was occupied, she had to be patient, and she was pretty good at that.   So she waited and waited and waited until Owen finally left his mommy's belly which seemed to take a very long time.

While he was being born, Nora whispered into the doctors's ear that she she should make sure to do a good job because she really needed that space.  And luckily the doctor did.  Afterwards, the doctor even laughed and told her mom and dad that she would see them back there in a little over a year when they were ready to have their second baby.  A year was a long time to wait even for a very patient little soul but it seemed like anything sooner than that would be too risky so Nora started thinking about things she could do to pass the time. But then her parents, she was already calling them that because she knew they were supposed to be her parents, laughed and said something dumb like, "You won't see us back here, we're too old and poor to have more children!"  Nora thought that was ridiculous because in her journeys around the world, she had seen people a lot poorer than her parents who had more than two kids and seemed to do okay. It was true that they were a little on the older side but that was one of the things she liked about them, it made them more interesting, like art or a good bottle of wine.  "We will see,"the doctor said, "I bet you will be back.  I know these things."  "That's right!" Nora shouted, "I know these things too!"  but since she was just a little soul shouting into the universe she couldn't be positive that anyone heard her.

The next year or so, she kept close to her family when she wasn't busy flying about the world exploring.  Her favorite thing to do was to watch other babies being born, she loved seeing that little moment when babies burst out of their mommy's bellies and took their first breath of air.  Most people in the real world couldn't see it but babies come out encased in a shimmery gold light that explodes into a sunburst of magic dust which settles and burrows into their parents.  This way they will always be connected to each other no matter where they are.  It is one of the most beautiful things in the world.   Her second favorite thing was to watch dolphin's swim.  If her parents didn't come to their senses and decide to have her, her back up plan was to be a dolphin for a lifetime until she got over the disappointment. She didn't think she would need this but it made her feel better to have an option.

Then one day, when she stopped by her parents house she heard them talking about having another baby.  Her mom, boy she liked the sound of that, was really really ready but her dad was still a little worried.  He said he was too old to go through having a newborn again, with all the sleepless nights.  "This one will sleep, " her mom said .  "Can you promise me this one will be a sleeper?"  he asked.  "Yes," mom said, "she will be a sleeper. I promise."  So Nora wrote in her little invisible sketchpad ' be a sleeper'  though she wasn't exactly sure what that meant.  "Wait,"  dad said suddenly, "how do you know it will be a girl?"  Mommy just smiled.
Nora thought things were looking promising because she got the feeling that once her mom made up her mind to do something that she usually got it done and she knew there was more love in her daddy's heart than even he knew.  She stopped spending quite as much time with the dolphins because when you spend too much time with creatures when you're still a little floating soul, you can end up attaching to those beings, despite the best master plans  Instead, she watched her family,.  She especially loved watching her brother Owen who had a remarkably big heart and made people smile wherever he went. He seemed to know everyone in the neighborhood and she thought he would do a job showing her around.  Now all she had to do was wait.

Her mommy didn't like waiting either and one day her mommy get very sad.  "I can feel her waiting," her mommy sad to her daddy  "She wants to come so bad.  I feel her, I want her so much."  This made Nora happy and sad.  Despite being a very calm and patient little floating soul, she sometimes worried that things wouldn't work out because life doesn't always go according to plan but she decided to just have faith.  Because once two souls feel each other so strongly, magical things can happen.

And then one day, everything fell into place, as things that are meant to fall into place, fall into place.  She felt her little floating soul being tugged by a shimmering golden thread, nestling her deep within her mommy and daddy's hearts.  And there she began to transform from a matter-less soul into a solid and beautiful baby girl.   Though people claimed that babies grow in people's bellies, she knew that this was not the case.  She knew souls find root only by burrowing into other souls, weaving together their strands until they are thick and strong as tree trunks.  And in her case, she had planted that seed long ago, and it was a beautiful and marvelous thing to see it bloom into something so miraculous and alive.