Heather and I have been married for about a year now. We've both been very keen on having kids, but deciding when to start a family is not a simple matter. I've just started a new PhD, and Heather has a full time job, so things are not as straight forward as they could be. In the end, we thought that waiting around for better times may not be the best plan. While I wish I had a full-time job, I remind myself that countless other parents have managed to raise kids admirably well in more challenging situations.

Heather recently had reason to believe that something was up, so on Friday we went to the maternity clinic together.

Let's just say that I've never seen so many pregnant women all in one place before.

The little black dot in the middle of this ultrasound image is the good news we'd been waiting for. Heather is 5 weeks pregnant and we are both very pleased and looking forward to the times ahead. 

Scrutinizing the dot, I couldn't help but think of Carl Sagan's referral to the famous photo of a tiny Earth in space as 'a pale blue dot in the cosmos.'

It's funny that something so small can mean so much.