The First One

I'm sitting here contemplating this day and I am overwhelmed with memories. 26 years worth.  


All of my life since I was a very young child I dreamed of pretty much one life for myself--being a mom.  I was the little girl who always had a baby doll  (got my last one in 6th grade and still have it) or was begging to hold someone's real life baby.


I got married when I was 20 which is VERY young now.  But I had traveled all across the United States and Canada with a quick dip into Mexico as a 19 year old (as part of a traveling ministry team) and thought I was very sophisticated and mature.  It was during that year that I met my future husband who lived in Kansas.  So I happily left everyone and everything I had ever known to get married and went to live in Kansas at age 20.


About six months into our marriage I was feeling very alone with a husband who worked more than I could have imagined and my family 540 miles away.  I had been babysitting for a neighbor's little girl and she was such a delight to have around.  So we decided to have a baby.  I am so glad that we did! 


Fast forward to February 1985.  My "due date" was February 13th.  It just so happened that that date fell on the weekend that my husband was scheduled for his monthly Navy Reserves duty.  Of course.  

January 1985 with my niece Jessica

So he was gone that weekend.  I was very anxious to have my baby although I was really scared of what childbirth might be like.  There I was, home alone, stoking the wood stove with logs as I lumbered around myself with my cumbersome pregnant form.  Fortunately, our baby didn't come that weekend even though, if I remember correctly, my sister-in-law, who at that time lived down the road from us, asked me to go for a "drive" with her over the areas railroad tracks.  We did and it was fun.  But no baby.


The next Sunday afternoon, February 17th, we were watching TV and eating popcorn and drinking Pepsi.  Suddenly, I started to feel "funny".  Before long I was having contractions and when I went to bed that night they were coming around 20 minutes apart.  I was so excited.  My baby was going to be born on an even numbered day!  


Monday rolled around and was a gorgeous day.  It was so warm outside you barely needed a light jacket!  My contractions had continued through the night and into Monday so by Monday afternoon we went to the hospital so very casually thinking that our precious baby would be born before long.  We "checked in" and the real fun started.  


At that time our local hospital was very old.  My husband had been born there along with thousands of other people over many years.  They had what they boasted to be their "new" birthing room which was just the labor and delivery room with a new "birthing bed" in it.  It was first come, first serve.  If you got there and someone else was using it, you were out of luck and had to give birth the old fashioned way in a room on a hard table, I guess.


We were lucky and no one else was there so we felt like winners.  


It was hard work and kind of painful but I could handle it.  Then about midnight with the prospect of TUESDAY morning looming and still no baby I was feeling exhausted and distraught.  Let's just say that things were not happening that should have been happening.  


So they introduced me to a little something called pitocin.  And a little over 5 hours later, on Tuesday, February 19th, our first born son was born.  And the joy of a lifetime began.

Hours old.

Winter fun.

The boy who loved to farm everything.

Ready for preschool.

The young man I'm so proud to call my son.

Happy Birthday, Nathan!  You've given us so much joy!