I clearly remember how sacred, blessed, mystical and miraculous that felt! I remember feeling so grateful that this little being had come to us from the heavens to be ours. She knows the story and recalls me telling her that she came from the stars to live with us and be our baby, but she has no memory of that story actually originating with her.Īnd the thing is… I do remember believing that she came from the stars even before she told us she did. True to Wordsworth’s belief, by the age of six, Z had completely forgotten her memories of heaven. Nineteenth-century British poet William Wordsworth expressed the idea that we gradually lose our intimate knowledge of heaven as we grow up, observing that “our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting” of our previous heavenly existence. You see, Z’s story is not all that unusual or unexpected, as countless kids around the world have reported similar experiences and memories. Sure enough, Zoe was quoted – or rather, I was quoted as paraphrasing the story Z told us – in the book called “ Memories of Heaven: Children’s Astounding Recollections of the Time Before They Came to Earth” by Dr. I reached out with our story and shared what Z had told us, and heard back not long afterward that it would be included in the book upon publication. In so doing, I found a query by an author researching a book on this exact topic. I was awed enough by it to google and see if any other children had similar experiences. Each time our young daughter told the story, I would ask her questions and she would answer with clarity and consistency – until her little toddler mind grew tired of the discussion and demanded a snack or nursies or to go outside and play. If reading this story gives you chills, believe me when I say it does me, too – even though I heard her tell it multiple times. She told us of others there in the stars, friends and family members – including her own three daughters who will come one day to live in her belly. She would point upwards with her little chubby hand as she told us how she came to us from the stars to live in my belly. By the age of three, she enraptured us with tales of how she came to choose us as parents and be our daughter. Z was an early and prodigious talker and storyteller.

Bellatrix is also the third brightest star in the constellation Orion – perhaps Z’s most tangible connection to the stars. Bellatrix means “female warrior” in Latin and it perfectly captured the feeling we were getting from our little one in utero. Rowling’s magnificently ruthless character, but because of the reasons she was given that name. We chose for her the middle name Bellatrix, not because of J.K. Let me rephrase that: we both strongly felt a presence that was both strong and female!

We hedged our bets and thought up boy names too, just in case our hunches were wrong, but both of us felt a strong female presence. We also knew very early on, instinctively, that she was a girl – long before it was confirmed by ultrasound. That morning, I felt nausea, weakness – my body felt literally stunned. Of course, I didn’t know at the time what the feeling was. This is pretty rare, and my doctor didn’t believe me, but I literally felt her cells’ implantation in my uterus. That feeling got even stronger when the doctor confirmed we were pregnant – but weeks before we went to the doctor to be sure, we already knew. When I was pregnant with Z, I loved to listen to and sing to her Madonna’s beautiful lullaby “Little Star.” I felt like the luckiest mommy in the world when we conceived Z. I don’t even know what came first.īefore we decided to embark on the journey of trying to have a baby, I remember thinking that “if it’s written in the stars that we’re meant to have a baby, then I know we’ll have one.” When we found out we were pregnant with her, I thanked my lucky stars. It’s hard to know where or how it began, but it’s like anything else: once you notice something, you start seeing it everywhere. Our daughter Zoe’s life is imbued with a deep and rich celestial mythology – one which began long before she was born.

Radiant meaning for kids