Family Plus One

Grandparenting is a lovely blessed thing. Olivia arrived five days early and came lickety split. If her parents had waited another ten minutes to head for the hospital, she would have been born in a Ford Explorer on one of the coldest days in the history of Chicago-land. The air temp was minus twenty-five degrees Farenheit. As my daughter stood with her husband at the check-in desk, the clerk asked, "Are you here to be induced?" Rather than answer the question, my daughter, leaning her head onto the counter, breathing through a strong contraction, said, "OHHHH, my water broke!" Nurses scurried around, got her up to the room, telling her the midwife was enroute, please don't push. Upon examining my daughter the nurse realized Olivia's head was crowning. Midwife breezes in, three contractions, Olivia arrived. Exactly eighteen minutes after the Ford Explorer pulled into the temporary drop off drive at the hospital.

I suspect my second grandchild, Olivia, will prove to do everything in life quickly and on her terms. What a glorious way to live.

...home again with an additional family member. How strange and miraculous birth is.