Baby Smiling In Back Seat

A couple of weeks ago Lollipop Goldstein asked for posts about wishes. She asked:

Is there an expiration date to wishes? What is the longest amount of time you’ve ever witnessed between making a wish and having it come true?… But if my four-year-old wishes happened to come true now (will I get that pony?), in the most random, bizarre way (a pony on my doorstep?), would I chalk it up to that old wish? Or was it just a strange coincidence that a pony showed up in my neighbourhood?

I can’t let her question go unanswered. Better late than never.

I’m a one-trick pony (ha ha ha) when it comes to wishes. Prior to age 8 it’s hard to remember what I wished for; I know that I earnestly wished for a Cabbage Patch Doll until I finally received one. I am pretty sure that I also did a lot of wishing that my parents would get un-divorced. Not sure before that.

Through most of my childhood and adolescence, my wishes revolved around boys. Wishes on stars, wishes on birthday candles, wishes on coins in fountains, wishes on wishbones (before I became a vegetarian), all about boys. From ages 8 to 13 one specific boy, on whom I had the biggest and longest-lasting childhood crush ever. Then once I moved on, I either wished about other specific boys, or for love in general. Never once did I wish for a pony.

Then I met DH, and I didn’t need to make any more wishes to find my prince. I instead wished about the longevity of our relationship, that we would be together forever. I don’t recall what else I wished for during the post-meeting-DH/pre-TTC era. I will say that I didn’t have many chances for wishes due to a decrease in the number of birthday cakes with candles, fewer wishing stars, fewer coins in fountains, and a total elimination of wishbones.

A few years later, I started wishing for babies. At first, I simply wished to get pregnant. Then when it wasn’t working, I wished hard to get pregnant. After over 2 years TTC, I finally got pregnant, then miscarried.

Apparently, I was not specific enough.

In the current Barren Bitches Book Brigade selection, Eat Pray Love, Richard from Texas tells Liz about his long-standing prayer, “Please, please, please open my heart.” He is rewarded with open-heart surgery. He cautions, “Be careful what you pray for, Groceries, cuz you just might get it.” Richard was not specific enough about what kind of heart-opening he sought, and I was not specific enough about what should happen after the pregnancy occurred.

So now, I wish to not only get pregnant, but also for it to result in a healthy live baby. Is that specific enough, Wish Fairy?

As for Lolly’s question about expiration dates and wish lags, I consider my wishes for non-DH boys to have expired. If my long-time childhood crush suddenly tracked me down and professed his undying love, I would laugh heartily and then let him down gently. Anyway, I’ve seen his picture as an adult, and he was way cuter as a little boy.

I don’t foresee an expiration date on the baby wish. I will keep going until it is fulfilled.

Now, let’s tally the wishes with their durations and outcomes.

• Wish for Cabbage Patch Kid: a few months, fulfilled
• Wish for parents to un-divorce: a few years, fulfilled then unfulfilled, now expired
• Wish for specific boy from elementary school to like me: 5 years, expired
• Wish for other boys to like me: 1 day to 1 year, all expired
• Wish for love: 5 to 10 years depending on how you count; fulfilled
• Wish to be with DH forever: so far so good
• Wish for pregnancy: 2 years, fulfilled very temporarily in a cruelly literal fashion
• Wish for baby: total 6.5 years and counting, still wishing