Getting to be a Grandma is much harder than actually being one.  Of course, it's good to be a comfort to the mother-to-be and to have some understanding of what she's experiencing all those long months.  There certainly is a formerly untouched level of communication as your daughter experiences the same things that brought HER into YOUR life twenty-odd years ago.

But oh, those last few weeks, as her tummy gets bigger and bigger, and everyone gets more and more impatient for the baby's arrival!

She would come to visit us, and be so uncomfortable and have contractions, and almost every time for about the last week and a half I would be sure she was going to start labor that very day.  It was so nerve-wracking, I decided I did not like becoming a grandmother and I wanted to back out, and not have my girl go through it all.  Fortunately, I did not have that option, and one remarkable day, labor actually did begin and my daughter not only survived it, but produced the most wonderful baby ever born, with the possible exception of my own five babies.

Do you want to know how it feels to be a Grandma?

I felt like I had just fallen in love--giddy, breathtaking love -- with a tiny face topped with fuzzy brown hair, two tiny hands, two funny little bowed legs with tiny feet, softer-than-velvet skin, and all that goes together to make up a very new little boy.

James William Madara proved to be well worth the wait, and even though he is now pushing the grand old age of 22, has holes in both ears and a ring on his lip, he's still a wonderful young man and  I confess that occasionally, I still think of him as my dear little Jimmy, the most wonderful boy in the world.