And I will not pretend those were not frightening words to hear over a three-day-old you already loved.

But Dr.

Harris was clear, and calm, and I have held on to what she told us ever since.

In Grace’s case, she said, the condition appeared to be mild.

With an early surgery and the right follow-up care, the doctors expected — genuinely expected — that this little girl had an excellent chance of growing up healthy, and living a full, ordinary, wonderful life.

But even if the news had been harder than it was — and I have thought about this a great deal — it would not have changed the single most important fact in that hospital, which was this: she was a child.