Baby Boom

I watched the movie Baby Boom this morning. It was made in 1987 with Diane Keaton playing a yuppie New York fast-tracker named J.C. Wiatt and Sam Shepard as Jeff Cooper, a Vermont country veterinarian. J.C. inherits a baby girl from a distant relative when the parents are killed in an auto accident. She's unprepared and it begins to affect her work as she struggles to adjust. Her relationship at the time ends over it. She ultimately loses her position in the company, so she quits and moves to a 62 acre farmhouse with an apple orchard. This 200 year old home and property costs her most of her savings as one thing after another goes wrong and then, quite by accident, she discovers a market for gourmet baby food. Within a short time, she's built up this amazing business that her old account in New York wants to buy. By this time, she's involved with the vet and the problems on her property (a new roof, a well that's gone dry, the heating system) have all been repaired. So she goes to New York to hear the offer and negotiate with the intention of leaving Vermont and returning to the world she'd lived in before. But after the very impressive offer is made and she thinks she's going to accept, she realizes how much she loves the life she has now. She turns it all down and returns home to her farm, her daughter and Sam Shepard.

The first time I saw this movie, I was single and childless but very much wanted to be married and a mother. So, what stood out most in my mind, is the scene I know by heart. It is the ending when J.C. comes home and walks into the room where her baby is sitting on the floor playing. She says, "Hi, Elizabeth" to her daughter and the baby smiles and says, "Mama!" This sweet, precious ending always made me long to be a mother all the more. But when I watched it today, I realized that simple, heart-filled moment is one I get to live every day now. My daughter, even at the grown up age of 13, still calls me Mama. And every time she says it, my heart sings. The best gift I've ever been given is my daughter. I was 35 years old when she was born. Sometimes the things we must wait the longest for are the very best. She is.