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Cross-posted from Ryan’s blog.
Evan came into the world at 1:58pm this afternoon. We had quite a journey getting there though!
First of all, he wasn’t really ever supposed to be here in the first place. Ten years ago, we stood in front of a screen while our doctor completed a test to see if we could have more children. After having tubal pregnancies both before and after Hannah, the doctor told us that it wouldn’t be possible. After adopting both Ellie and Julia, we found out that Evan was determined to defy the odds!
Last night, we came to the hospital to be induced. We started at about 10pm having some initial preparation medications and then this morning they started the Oxytocin to begin the contractions. A couple of hours later, they broke the water and then shortly after gave Gina the epidural. After that, they started an exam, so I walked out to go talk to the grandparents who were down in the waiting room. Suddenly, nurse Amy, who was doing the exam, appeared around the corner into the waiting room and started waving me back to the room. On the way back to the room, she told me, “Gina is 7 cm and I just shook hands with the baby!” I thought she meant that things were just moving quicker than expected, but she meant it pretty literally. Turns out that he had pushed his hand and part of his arm out and as the nurse was doing the examination, he grabbed her finger!
The lead nurse tried to push the hand back in a little bit, but he wasn’t having any of it. He actually pushed it out even further, so they called Dr. Franco to come and check it out. He decided that they needed to do a C-section right away, so they put the surgical stuff on us and out the door we went! The C-section happened within the next twenty minutes and we were seeing Evan. Awesome!
Here are a few pictures from our day today:
The fireworks were rained out around here last night because of waves of rain, thunderstorms, and hail in the area. So tonight we went over to try to see them again. We got there about an hour early and we all enjoyed a beautiful sunset and glorious summer evening.
Ellie was talking to me about something (really important, I’m sure, but I can’t remember what it was) when Hannah interrupted her.
I said, “wait a sec, Hannah, Ellie was talking to me first.”
Ellie said, “that’s okay, she can talk, I lose-ded my mind, anyway.”
I looked over at Ryan and whispered, “she’s lose-ded my mind a few times, too!”
We spent the afternoon on Saturday at a local waterpark in Englewood, called Pirate’s Cove. It was great fun, except poor Ellie gets so chilled when we go swimming in Colorado. The sun is always hot, hot, hot, but here near the foothills there is usually a little breeze that gets to her. (Never seems to be a problem in Florida at Grandma and Grandpa’s house where we can harldy get the girls out of the pool, hmmm…)
We all floated down the lazy river for a long time (my favorite because of the relief to my back), watched Daddy go down the waterslide and splash the life guard, watched Hannah on the diving board, and watched Ellie delight in the giant sandbox. Julia is such a water bug and enjoyed it all.
But, my mind is rather forgetful lately, and we discovered that we had no more diapers with us. Swim diapers aren’t meant to be absorbent… Hmmm…what to do? I found a burp cloth in the van and layered it with a swim diaper thinking I had made a make-shift cloth diaper that would work at least until we got home, right?
Well, Julia fell asleep on the way home – about 6 pm – and slept, and slept, and slept – no dinner, no bottle…Finally about 8:30 I remembered that she was in that silly diaper. The big girls were heading to bed and we decided to let her sleep and see what happened. Would we have a baby up at 10:00 hungry and well rested? Or 1:00 am? Would that diaper do the job?
She slept until 6:00 am and the diaper didn’t leak. She had a bottle with Daddy and some Cheerios…and fell asleep again. Boy, when that baby wakes up…she is going to be ready to eat!
Our family is blessed to have a godly, loving, hard-working Daddy who would do anything to keep us safe and well taken care of. I am especially thankful for the burden that he bears to provide for us so I can stay home and care for our kids. Today, he took time to mow the grass before he left for a business trip (on Father’s Day) because he knew that they have been playing out there a bunch since they have a new swing set and he didn’t want the grass to get too high.
Ryan and Hannah had fun building a soap-box derby car for Awana’s this year. Here they are on race night. I bet you can judge by the looks on their faces that the car worked well and Hannah finished in the top 20.
When we found out about our difficulties with Julia’s case in Ethiopia, I knew that Ryan would literally move heaven and earth for our little girl. Here he is getting to work from our room at Morning Coffee Guest House.
But, the truth is we’re even luckier than just having a great Dad. Ryan and I both have terrific, hard-working, caring fathers who love their kids and grandkids and their wives after 40 and 45 years of marriage, respectively. I don’t think that in this crazy world that having a solid foundation to grow up on is something to be taken for granted. I know that I am blessed by having these three men in my life and my kids are reaping that blessing as they grow up as well.
Grandma and Grandpa held down the fort for us while we were in Ethiopia. When we were delayed, they offered us much reassurance and support and continued to care for the girls while keeping the enormity of our situation quiet to them.
Grandpa is a retired Air Force Colonel and retired as a Captain from Delta. My girls know that Grandpa flew airplanes…but what they get to do with Grandpa is get their face painted for Halloween and color Eggs for Easter! And they both have inherited his adventuresome spirit – (biological or not)!
This is one of the places where Papa is happiest – with a lap-full of grandchildren. He would never turn one away, saying there is always room for one more. Good thing since #11 is due to show up in about 3 weeks! Actually, he’s been saying that since I was a kid and always made room for me… funny, the things a kid remembers, hmmm?
My Dad has a heart for the underdog and has uncanny discernment about where his grandkids are coming from. He will take time out for one, or make an astute (but never, ever critical) comment to their parent that is 100% spot-on. Several times, I have been stunned by a comment that he has made that gave me such insight about one of my kids.
This is one trick I have never been very good at – balancing a child on my lap while we are both trying to eat. In fact, I’m quite the stickler on the high chair for eating. Except when it comes to Papa – all the grandkids have had many a meal from this vantage point. Julia had no problem making herself comfortable.
To be honest, the last few weeks have been pretty rough around here. Ryan has been working a ton and gone a lot, we have been re-aligning our behavior and discipline techniques for summer break (meaning there has been lots of trouble!), and I have been hot, tired, and frankly, pretty cranky. Not one issue too big to handle, but pretty daunting when they are piled on top of one another and mixed with pregnancy hormones.
But, both of my girls said something very sweet to me today and it was like a salve over all the difficulty we’ve had recently.
Hannah – I basically took a shower, washed my hair, let it air dry, then threw it up into a pony tail before taking Ellie to gymnastics this afternoon. Not my normal M.O for leaving the house, but it is hot and I was doing housework all day. Hannah told me that she liked my hairstyle and that I should wear it that way more often. Love really is blind. Ryan had no comment when I told him but did manage to keep a straight face!
Ellie – Ellie got a rope burn on her thigh at gymnastics from climbing the rope (about 2/3 of the way to the ceiling, YIKES!). It was fine until she was changing her clothes for bed. Ellie is tough but it was really hurting her. I put some ointment and a band-aid over it so it wouldn’t bother her in bed. When we were done, she threw her arms around me and whispered in my ear that “you are the best muther eber!”
Two months ago, these two big sisters…
…were so glad the wait was finally over.
Well, almost over.
There was customs and immigration, of course.
And, finally, there we were in the middle of DIA – a family of five (well, 6, really)!
Something for everyone:
-Julia cheers.
-Ellie practices her letters and admires Vanna’s dresses.
-Hannah works through the puzzles.
-I reminisce about watching this show when I was at my grandma’s house when I was a child. I always thought she should go on the show because she was so good at solving the puzzles. Hannah says that about me. I guess I sort of like being on the other side of it now.
We found a great frozen yogurt store at Cherry Creek Mall yesterday called Cherry on Top. It was a great way to combat the 95 degree heat and you get to do the flavors and the toppings yourself. Definitely a kid’s paradise!
Julia got in on the action too. Ice cream is a very good way to practice the sign for “More”! Strawberry (with mini chocolate chips) was her flavor of choice – and Mommy’s, too!
I have been pretty clumsy lately. Last night, as the girls were going to bed, I knocked the vase that Ellie had hand-painted and uses to store her quarters off the edge of a cabinet and broke it. No chance for repairs.
My sweet Ellie was so gracious about my mistake. She didn’t cry, said it was ok, and gee, she could always paint another one.
I make mistakes all the time that she doesn’t know about. This one hit pretty close to home for her. I think it is especially sweet when a child expresses kindness and graciousness to her parent’s faux-pas.
Is there really a way to completely baby proof before a baby is mobile? I am not certain that you can do too much until they are crawling and then the requirement is to just follow the baby around at first and find and remove the “hot spots”. Julia was playing in Ellie’s little school area yesterday afternoon and Ellie was so sweet about removing things that would hurt Julia. She is a great guardian of her baby sister. She is very proud of herself when she finds something, holds it up, and says, “Choking Hazard!”
Julia made at least three laps around the house this morning. So far, she is more following us around rather than going off on her own to explore. We have a sunken living room and she can go up the step, and we are working on teaching her “feet first” down the step. Earlier, no one noticed that she was close to the step and she went nose first (onto carpeting). There was so much comforting done by sweet Hannah that Mom hardly had a chance to make it better.
Julia was very ready for her nap and I am sure she will sleep well after all that exercise.
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