My baby girl will be 18 this weekend, and I have some mixed feelings about that fact!
I can’t help but think about the events surrounding her birth.
We were living in Nashville at the time. She came into this world five weeks early, hurrying me along on a book I was editing for a family in Texas. In fact, she had impressed me a week or so before her arrival to deep clean my bedroom, stirring up copious amounts of dust, which gave me a lovely sinus infection.
The day she made her intentions known was Good Friday. I had a sitter entertaining my 3-year-old and 16-month-old sons, and I was anxiously putting the finishing touches on the huge family history. My lower back was starting ache from sitting in the office chair for so long, or so I thought.
I finished the book, closed the file, said good-bye to the sitter, and took care of the boys for the rest of the afternoon. Then my sister called. We were on the phone for all of about 20 minutes when she calmly said, “Hang up the phone. Your contractions are 5 minutes apart. I’m calling Mom so she can catch the next plane out of Houston.”
I was so surprised! I honestly had not connected the dots!
At the hospital, the doctor tried to stop my contractions, to no avail. We had a baby girl the next day.
I was so anxious about my baby boys at home who were with my mom but without me, that I insisted we be discharged from the hospital early that Easter Sunday morning. We had just walked in the door of our house when the phone rang, and the pediatrician directed us to Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital; her bilirubin count was too high.
So, in the snow (yes, snow), we took our glowing, newborn preemie to the hospital. That period of time is a bit of a blur due to days without much sleep, but I do know that I was able to stay with baby in a private room as she baked under a sun lamp with her stylish purple wrap-around sunglasses in place.
She was such a tiny little thing! She did not stay tiny forever though. She grew taller than me several years ago.
She started out life oh-so-sassy, but she’s grown into a thoughtful, compassionate, special young lady. I know the Lord has great plans for her future!
