The Miracle of Life

All e-mails, paperwork, order filling, phone calls and art making came to an abrupt stop on Friday when our dear friends texted me to say that “today is the day!” Our friends are in Anchorage visiting from their far North village in Alaska for their baby’s impending birth. I picked up Eunice and Sulook at the hospital when the labor and delivery nurses said we needed to have Eunice go for a long walk to get the labor to be a bit more intense before they could admit her.  “Go for a walk?!” Anchorage was in the middle of yet another massive snowstorm complete with highway and road closures and weather warnings! Driving over to the hospital the radio warned that a section of the Seward highway was closed because a school bus (no kids on board) was on it’s side and a large semi was jack-knifed further down the highway. Go for a walk?! Where? The Mall of course! Still, I was so nervous to drive anywhere beyond a 3-mile radius of the hospital because her contractions, though not very strong were no less than 8 minutes apart all day long. I admit thoughts of my dad delivering me in the front seat of his truck were flashing through my head. After an afternoon of walking and shopping for baby things, Eunice was finally admitted and let Nature take it’s course through the night. Sulook and I took turns with small catnaps in the chair, each loving and coaching the strong and beautiful Eunice until it was show time. Time was distorted in the early morning hours in the comfortable, quiet, dimly lit labor and delivery room. What initially seemed like a week (probably longer to Eunice who used NO pain meds!) within minutes after I stepped out of the room to the nurses station to say Eunice was “ready” everyone was manning their stations and it was GO TIME! Ready, set, push, push, push and before I could get everyone’s cameras going the baby was here! It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever been a part of! Even though I’ve had 3 kids, watching a birth is very different than giving birth. Seeing this perfectly shaped, living, breathing, wriggling and SCREAMING baby get plopped onto Eunice’s tummy was almost overwhelming and took my breath away. Not knowing the sex before she was born, we all were so excited we forgot to see if it was a boy or a girl! Fighting back tears because I was trying to get pictures for their family it was hard to hold the smart phones without shaking. Derek and I are the proud God Parents of the beautiful Charity Frances, which also took our breath away. We will love this little girl like our own. 

Welcome to this beautiful world Charity Frances!

Charity Frances, 8 lbs. 11 oz. born at 6:08 AM on February 4, 2012.