Amy and David Lorenzo thought they were prepared five years ago when their daughter was born. But they quickly found that perception and reality are two different things when it comes to children.
The couple sat down in the StoryCorps booth in Boise recently to share their thoughts on parenthood. Amy Lorenzo describes her daughter Morgan as full of energy and love.
“She is an absolute whirlwind of energy and love and enthusiasm,” said Amy. “I had so much speculation when I was pregnant about who she was going to be and what she was going to be like and I had no idea just how much I would love her. My mom tried to warn me, she tried to warn me that you just don’t understand what it’s like to fall in love until you become a mom.”
“That’s true,” said David.
“And she was right,” said Amy. “And she [Morgan] watches everything that you do.”
“For better or worse.”
“Even in working in the yard," Amy said. "She’s got to wear shorts just like dad and wear a baseball cap just like dad and get a shovel just like dad. Watching her teaching her how to put a worm on a hook and chop wood and climb trees…”
“…and mow the lawn at 4!” exclaimed David.
“Those are the things about her that I just didn’t anticipate, but I cherish,” said Amy. “David, could you just take a few minutes and kind of go over the night that Morgan was born, and talk to me a little bit about that first night when they had taken her away to the nursery and it was just the two of us.”
“Morgan was born about 8 o’clock and everything was great and family was there and adrenaline was running high and everything was joyous and wonderful," David said. "I remember, we were back in our room and it was night, it must have been midnight and by this time the dust has settled and we had spent some time with our new daughter and the hospital staff took her to the nursery so that we would be able to get some sleep."
"Here I am, the husband of a brand new mom who had recently just given birth just four hours ago and I, as they wheel my daughter out, I well up and I burst into tears and I crawl into bed with you and I proceed to cry and say ‘I didn’t know it was going to be so big! I didn’t know this was going to be so big!’ referring to the fact that I had no idea how much this little person was going to immediately change my life and I don’t feel like I was ready for it," remembers David.
"Instead of being the man who was there and comforting my wife who had just given birth to my daughter, I made certain that she was going to have to comfort me! In that moment! Yep, I’m probably not going to live that down for a while.”
“It’s funny,” said Amy. “Because in hindsight that kind of set the tone for the next few years of parenthood. I had no idea I was going to be raising a daughter and a husband for a while.”
“Yes you were. You raised a new dad.”
“But I feel like we worked out the kinks,” said Amy.
“We have. We’ve figured it out. We sure have.”
StoryCorps is a national initiative to record and collect stories of everyday people. Excerpts were selected and produced by Boise State Public Radio.
Copyright 2013 Boise State Public Radio
