The truth in science has had the last word:

You are not an inhuman form,

Some part of me,

Mere tissue and bone,

But every cell of your body

Cries out in its unique code

That you are not my own,

But wholly other.

Though this mystery

Is far too grand

For any of us to comprehend,

It is a beauty that in

God's mind

I should be a human vessel

In whom to weave a person

Who, though within me,

Is not me.

My freedom and worth

Are fully known

When I surrender

To the Holy Other

Who declares the value

Of my life and yours,

That you have a purpose,

An identity, and soul.

Though time may tell

If I'll be poor or alone,

What good is gaining all the world

If I become poor in soul?

We are far more than matter,

We are embodied soulish beings,

My life is so much more than success

Or any measurable thing.

And though I have no power or fame

To give you all I wish to give,

Life you've already been given,

And so, my child, you shall live.

We will be rich in laughter and in tears,

In pages of books and stories of old,

We will feast on love, rich in eternal hope.

God created you,

O human other,

And in that one instant

I became your mother.

Ashley and her husband, Jason, are expecting their first child, a baby girl, (pictured on right) in July. The title of Ashley's poem reminds us of the otherness of a holy God and the otherness of an unborn child as a unique human created by him