{"id":3573,"date":"2015-04-30T00:03:51","date_gmt":"2015-04-30T04:03:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/?p=3573"},"modified":"2015-04-30T00:03:51","modified_gmt":"2015-04-30T04:03:51","slug":"the-birthday-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/?p=3573","title":{"rendered":"The Birthday Truth…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"birthswitch\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On this day in history\u2026<\/p>\n

True Story.\u00a0 About five decades ago, maybe a little more\u2026. ON a Wednesday\u2026. a baby girl was born in a hospital in a Midwestern city.\u00a0 It was much like any other hospital in the Midwest, except for one thing.\u00a0 The Queen of Denmark had been visiting the city, and she was pretty pregnant.\u00a0 As it turns out, she went into labor prematurely, was rushed to the VERY SAME hospital, and gave birth to a little girl, on the VERY SAME DAY.\u00a0 Both of these events transpired within an hour or so of one another.<\/p>\n

Now, the first girl to be born was me.\u00a0 Early in the day.\u00a0 The second child was the Queen\u2019s.\u00a0 I weighed 9 pounds 10 ounces, and was a pretty dang healthy baby. Chubby.\u00a0 Like a Walrus. But the Queen\u2019s little girl was premature.\u00a0 Spindly. Sickly. Not in very good shape.\u00a0\u00a0 The Queen was dismayed, and felt she could not return to the Homeland with such a poor specimen of a Danish child.<\/p>\n

So\u2026 that fine Queen\u2026 Margrethe II\u2026 summoned her three of her best bodyguards.\u00a0 They were to go to the hospital nursery, and switch babies.\u00a0 They were to find the girl who looked most like her little Baby Ingrid, but much healthier.<\/p>\n

And I entered the scene.\u00a0 Yes, I was switched at birth, and taken back to the Royal Palace in Denmark.\u00a0 As it turns out, they kept me for about 2 months.\u00a0 I was Little Princess Ingrid. Yet\u2026. they decided early on\u2026 there was something very odd about me.\u00a0 It could have been the over queued reserve of energy, even as a newborn.\u00a0 Or the constant chatter.\u00a0 Or the fact that it appeared that I was seeing things, and pointing randomly at this and that\u2026 as if something were really there.\u00a0 I would gesture my hands, and laugh.<\/p>\n

So. In late June of that same year, the team of bodyguards flew back to the U.S., problem-child in tow, and in the middle of the night, put me back with my birth family.\u00a0 And they took Princess Ingrid back to Denmark\u2026 pleasantly plump at this point. Like a Dutch Princess.<\/p>\n

This would explain my affinity for Dyrl\u00e6gens natmad\u2026. which is dark rye bread, a layer of liver p\u00e2t\u00e9 (leverpostej), topped with a slice of saltk\u00f8d (salted beef) and a slice of sky (meat jelly).\u00a0 Gawd, I can\u2019t get enough of the things.<\/p>\n

And here we are.<\/p>\n

Today as I sat with my birth mother, I reflected on my childhood, and all she must have sacrificed to be my Mom.\u00a0 All the love and car she gave to me. All the band-aids and \u201cThere, there\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

She had no idea today was my birthday.\u00a0 Midway through the visit, my brother called, and they sang Happy Birthday, in tandem, to me.\u00a0 She was so excited and wanted to have a party.\u00a0 Then, about 2 minutes later\u2026 she had no recollection that this had just transpired, or that it was even Spring.\u00a0 She hoped it wouldn\u2019t snow today.<\/p>\n

As I changed her diaper for the second time, she said \u201cLook who\u2019s the baby now.\u201d\u00a0 But 5 minutes later, she commented that she\u2019d like to go out and buy a new car this afternoon.\u00a0 By the time we got back to her chair, she asked for her third snack of the morning.<\/p>\n

I am glad for all of this. It is a tremendous birthday gift, to be with her, and have our moments of laughter.\u00a0 And we do.<\/p>\n

Had things gone the other way\u2026 I\u2019d be in some incredibly huge castle in Denmark right now\u2026 looking out over the Rhine River, counting the sapphires in my crown\u2026. \u2026.snacking on liver pate\u2019 with little birthday candles in it.\u00a0 With my dog named Dorit.\u00a0 In a golden gown made of silk and diamonds.<\/p>\n

Okay\u2026 truth be told\u2026 in ALL sounded pretty good until I had to put on a dress.\u00a0 All bets are off there\u2026\u2026\u00a0 Queen Mum of mine.<\/p>\n

You see\u2026. I am exactly where I am supposed to be\u2026 and I love being right here.\u00a0 Concisely\u00a0 where my life has led me.\u00a0 On this birthday of mine.\u00a0 I am thankful for it all.\u00a0 I am thankful for you.\u00a0 On this Wednesday.\u00a0 Some five decades later.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We are born wet, naked, and hungry. Then things get worse. ~Author Unknown<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid. ~Frederick Buechner<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On this day in history\u2026 True Story.\u00a0 About five decades ago, maybe a little more\u2026. ON a Wednesday\u2026. a baby girl was born in a hospital in a Midwestern city.\u00a0 It was much like any other hospital in the Midwest, except for one thing.\u00a0 The Queen of Denmark had been visiting the city, and she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nowyouseeit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3573"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3577,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3573\/revisions\/3577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}