Today I turned the exact age my mom was when she had me.
Somehow I think this is worth noting.
I was a ‘mistake’. My parents weren’t planning on another child – they had three already.
My mom said she always planned on having two; a boy and a girl.
Her first two were boys, and her mother convinced her to try again for a girl, and that’s how my sister came to be.

My mom tells the story of my birth often; she told it again this evening when I got home.
She went into labour on an early Thursday morning in June; it was raining, my siblings were asleep.
She woke them up, got them ready, fed them breakfast and sent them off to school.
Afterwards, she went to the small military hospital, and had me almost immediately.
By the time my grandmother got the call and made the two and half hour journey into Accra, mother and baby were ready to go home.
Mine was an easy and uncomplicated birth.
My mom was home in time to make dinner for my other siblings, and that is the wonder of my birth.

Sometimes my mom tells this story with pride, like she was some kind of wonder-woman back then.
Other times, the story is told with caution, almost as if I would have turn out differently if we’d had stayed a little longer at the hospital.
Sometimes when she gets that look in her eyes, I wonder if she’s thinking that perhaps, if we’d stayed a day or two then maybe, just maybe it could have been me who kept the family tradition and married the Foreign Service officer.
And I too, like my second cousin A. would have had three multilingual children with colourfully stamped passports.
My cousin A. spent months in a humidicrib when she was born.
Luckily, my mom hardly tells that story with that look.

Outfit Details: White Jean Jacket – Diesel, Black Shirt – Giordano, Jeans – The Gap, Boots – Espirit

I’m not very big on birthdays, I’ve never been – I can’t recall the last time I had a party on my birthday.
But I’ve always loved my birthdays, every birthday I’ve had has been special.
It almost always turns out just the way I imagined, and sometimes I get pleasant surprises, and that makes it even more magical.
And today was no exception; Sometimes I wish everyday was my birthday.