A Baby?

"Do you want to have a baby?"

"We got six," I reply.

"No ... one of our own," she clarifies.

Contemplating, I remain quiet.

At 58 working hard on what to work on, most wouldn't consider me an ideal candidte.

Of course most people thought I'd lost my mine when Sarah and I married and she brought three little girls into my life after I'd already survived raising three into adulthood.

Melding families is hard work and, while we certainly not finished, I find myself very happy and mostly delight in the crazy things little girls do.

"Judy O thinks we should have a baby," Sarah continues.

"Really?"

"Someone who is ours ... to leave behind in the world ... to share as long as we're together ... cause chances are you're going to go first."

I think of my friend Dan Sheehan who faced the same question years ago and he and Carolyn brought Eamon into the world. While Dan's gone, Carolyns still on Tybee Island and Eamon's happily married in Hollywood trying to make it as a star.

Once Dan and I played in a Father/Son basketball game with Eamon and my son Jeremy. Dan was older but out there giving it his sweaty best and I was in my physical prime. We didn't take it as serious as the boys, laughed a lot and actually won the game.

"I only have a few more years to consider it," Sarah concludes.

The dinner that night was a joyus celebration with Sarah's girls, Jeremy and his fiancee Terencia, who has two little girls of her own. They face the same question under almost identical circumstances.

"Everybody put a dollar on the table," I say, "and lets start a pool ... Who's going to have the first baby in the family? ... Terencia and Jeremy ... Sarah and me ... my daughter Chelsea and her husband Sam ... my daughter Kristen who is single ... or 13 year old Maddie?"

There's time for you to get in on this pool if you want but ... not a lot of time.

Except hopefully in Maddie's case.