When Did My Life Begin?

"Life is such a gift," I can hear Dorothy saying tonight, as she says her prayers and quietly drifts off to sleep. She's been falling asleep on the same farm for over 90 years.
Virgil, her son, lives with her and does the driving for both of them these days. He also does the bulk of the lawnwork and takes care of the other chores on the family farm. He's retired now, and has plenty of time for his mom, who cared for him much the same way he now cares for her 60 some years ago. That's a part of the world we can visit out here on the plains that I haven't got a clue where else it exists. Maybe it doesn't anymore. Perhaps that has passed into history along with so many other bits and pieces of the "American Way of Life." I'd like to believe that in our ever changing world, there are some things that don't change. Right at this very moment there is only one that comes to mind, our God. That is enough! Perhaps that is one of the reasons I struggle so hard with acceptance of new considerations concerning the nature of God. God's nature has never changed. In my opinion, only our perceptions of God have changed.
I have read that our "English" language is the most difficult in the world to learn. That's because so many words mean so many different things(as if this is something new). The reason that English is so difficult is because we "borrow" all things from all languages and mix them together in a large pot and then spew them back out at a rate of speed I wish my computer printer had. Top that off with the number of words coming into fashion as common usage, and the words that are added due to the never ending needs as evidenced by technolgical advances, and you have an "ever changing" constantly evolving language.
My hope is that I might point out some similarities between how we use words and how we view life. In a world in which we do everything possible to save the life of one child if possible, we also condemn another to death without so much as an afterthought. We use the words to take away the sting associated with our actions, and this becomes easier with each new day.
When do we begin to give thanks for the wonderful gift of life? Obviously I've gotten myself in much further than I can follow up with tonight, but there is a point at which the "gift" of life is bestowed upon each of us, that precise moment we can understand without too many words, it is a "conception." God bless, Preacher!