My older sister is a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit nurse. When she chose this occupation, it was all a great surprise to us due to the fact that she had never really held a baby. The one instance that I do remember her actually holding a little baby was on one Thanksgiving. I was holding a sleeping infant girl. She came over and, after observing that the baby was sleeping peacefully in my arms, she asked if she could try holding her. We traded off, she got settled with the baby and then the baby started to scream. My sister's response was to quickly hand the baby back to me.....she kept saying, "I don't know what to do! Here, you just take her!" And that was her experience with a baby. She has come a long way since then. Not only is she a NICU nurse, now she is also a mother. We were talking the other day and she told me of a baby in her care that was "pretty." She doesn't say this about too many of them but she said more than once how pretty this little one was. The unfortunate part is that this pretty little baby girl was born to a drug addicted mother and placed in the care of the state. Ultimately, the child was placed for adoption and on the day that the adoptive parents were to pick up the baby from the hospital, the birthmother appeared in their unit and pleaded to see the baby. Knowing that the baby was to be adopted, the nursing staff was all in a fix on how to handle this particular situation. In the end, the adoptive parents gave consent for the birthmother to see the baby. My sister shared with me how heartbreaking it was to watch this lady cry big tears as she cuddled the little one and bid her beautiful baby goodbye. This scene, one that I wasn't physically a part of, has been in my mind since then.