Saturday, June 30, 2012

The Lucy Show

I escorted Laura and Jason and Lucy home from the hospital two days after she was born. For someone so small, she managed to take over the entire house and the complete focus of all three of us. We found her to be distractingly cute and all we could do was gaze at her. She reminds me of Mary Poppins as she is practically perfect in every way. I can tell already that she is highly intelligent and she has almost mastered saying Gigi, just a little more practice and she'll have it.


I was along as the Love slave to do whatever Laura and Jason needed me to do. The problem was, I couldn't tear myself away from Lucy to get anything useful done. I didn't serve dinner the first night until 9:00 P.M. which was bad enough. But even more embarrassing, I forgot about the chicken and almost burned it! Clearly I would have to focus if I had any hope of proving myself worthy and being invited back.

The next day, my mission was to get Laura and Lucy safely to  her first doctor's appt. Laura was suddenly aware of every bump in the road and I was implored to drive slowly so as not to disturb Lucy.  Lucy had lost some weight after birth and the doctor wanted to see if she had put any of it back on.  That's a switch! I hope she is enjoying this period of her life when gaining weight is a good thing. She did successfully put on 2.5 oz. so she is on her way! Her mommy impressed the pediatrician as she whipped out Lucy's feeding/diaper chart that she had been keeping since her birth. I have a feeling this is only the beginning of the documentation of Lucy.

On day four of Lucy's life I transported her and her mommy to Target to get some supplies. She didn't find Target terribly exciting but did her mommy the favor of sleeping contentedly in her stroller the entire time. She's thoughtful like that. The trip was well worth it though to find some cute bows to coordinate with her hip wardrobe. Look out Princess Kate, Lucy's in town!

Even though Lucy's arrival was one week earlier than her due date, she knew exactly what she was doing all along. She knew that her daddy needed a few days to get used to her so he could focus and study on his very important board exam on Monday. She is also very considerate and is keeping her night time feedings to a minimum and goes right back to sleep. See what I mean, practically perfect in every way.














Thursday, June 28, 2012

Head over Heels

Babies have a way of arriving when they want to arrive and Lucy's arrival was no different. On Sunday afternoon, Laura and I had planned that she would be induced on Tuesday after Jason's board exam.  Any other day of that week would have been perfectly fine also with regards to my work schedule, child care, the 4th of July holiday etc. Laura had requested that I be in the delivery room with her which would make things even trickier as far as timing. I was so excited and honored to be invited to this special occasion of Lucy's birth.


I was awakened at 5:00 A.M. with a phone call from Laura the very next morning, which was fully one week and one day earlier than what we had discussed. Lucy was ready to make her arrival, plan or no plan. The sound of my sweet girl's voice sounding a little scared propelled me into major planning, packing mode. I was still a little dubious about how long her labor would actually take, but was not taking any chances. After returning library books, notifying work that I would be taking the week off, dropping the kids off at VBS, Pat Conroy and I were on our way to Augusta to usher my granddaughter into the world. I was happily listening to The Prince of Tides when Jason called and told me that Laura's labor was progressing faster than expected. Unfortunately I still had miles to go, I was running out of gas and the speed limit was only 70 which was not fast enough to get me there. I have to admit that I did indeed exceed the speed limit by quite a bit to make it in time.  I arrived in time to fervently pray and to strongly encourage my child, Laura, that she could indeed do this.



Only thirty minutes later, Lucy came into the world perfect and pink to parents who had prayed for her from the moment she was conceived. How precious to witness not only the birth of my beautiful granddaughter, but the birth of a family. Laura and Jason were in complete awe that their little daughter had actually come. I watched them fall head over heels in love with Lucy with every minute they spent with her.  They could not take their eyes off her, even to watch their favorite Design Star TV show on a real TV ( a real treat because they don't have cable) or to eat! I couldn't help but see that this is just a picture of how much our Father in heaven loves us. He can't take His eyes off us. He delights in us.



He will take great delight in you. he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah 3:17

It is humbling to receive the gift of God bringing Lucy safely into Laura and Jason's heart and home.  What incomprehensible goodness from God for me to see my child become a parent of her own baby daughter. There is nothing I can say but thank you.


Thursday, June 21, 2012

The Very Long Drive

The forms were filled out. The money was paid. The bags were packed, or so I thought. It was time to load up my two youngest and drive them to their first overnight camp. My good best friend, Jan happened to be in town and decided to come along for the ride.  I armed her with the camp directions and off we went. The route would be taking us right by the outlet mall, what good fortune! With any luck, we could drop them off and have time to do some shopping before heading for home. Alas, this was not to be.

My son was uncharacteristically quiet and not hungry which told me that he was nervous about going to camp. My daughter who only gets nervous when faced with the prospect of getting a shot, was her usual chatty self. The first sign that the directions weren't the best was when we finally came to the road we  were looking for to turn on was not at the 3rd light as the directions stated, but the 9th or 10th. We were just glad to be on the right road. Next we were to drive into the town square and take a right on Church St. between the First Baptist Church and the Mountain View Community Bank. We found not one but two First Baptist Churches not on Church St. and we found a plethora of banks, none of which was the aforementioned, much less the right combination of the First Baptist Church on Church St. across the street from Mountain View Community Bank. I  approached the square from every direction, sent my gbf inside a sketchy convenience store to ask for directions and still no luck. My son stated, " I'm starting to get a feeling of worry." which is better than I'm starting to get a feeling of throwing up. Worry I can handle. No luck at the convenience store or even the school bus driver I pulled beside to ask directions. My gbf decided to send me this time into the larger of the two First Baptist Churches we had found. I asked the nice pastor if he could give me directions to the camp that was somewhere near the town square. He asked me for the address and proceeded to tell me the devastating news that I would never be able to find the camp because I was in the wrong town! He then started talking very slowly and he actually walked me out to my car to make sure he could physically point to the road which would lead me to the right town. Really, the wrong town! Who goes to the wrong town??

The end of check in time was fast approaching and the feeling of worry was increasing all around as was the need for food, water and a potty all of which we did not have time to stop for.  It was time for prayer and God did not let us down. Cheers all around and a big "Thank you Jesus!"when we finally spotted the sign for the camp. We were met with a camp counselor, clip board in hand as they were closing the check-in stations. To my horror I spotted a pile of color coordinated daily care packages lovingly prepared by other campers moms. Not good as I had forgotten to write letters. Since we were the very last campers to arrive, we got last choice in beds so I had to climb in my flip flops to the 3rd tier bunk bed to make up my daughters bed. Looking around at the other already made beds that I realized I also had not brought a blanket/sleeping bag as only sheets were listed. I rationalized that their exuberant twenty something counselors would think of something and quickly left as they were already behind schedule. We were on our way home and realized that I would not be able to rest thinking my children were freezing with no mail. My gbf Jan and I turned the car around to look for a store that sold blankets and stationary. The Family Dollar came through for me! I found two blankets, one Happy Birthday card and one Congratulations card to leave for them with money for the store. Not my finest Mommy moment!  Next, I would sneak the blankets and into their cabins and locate the office to leave the letters.  I almost made it, but my son spotted me and waved. He was walking very close to his counselor, but didn't run for the car, a good sign.

My gbf and I were now back on the road and hopeful that we could find our way home. We were also starving as it had been 5 hours since we left for the 1 1/2 hour trip to camp. We stopped to eat and I treated my gbf to dinner for her patience, sense of humor and company on our adventure. We felt much better after we ate, despite having to drive right past the outlet mall without stopping, something we have never ever done.

I'm not sure my gbf will every get into the car with me or my children for that matter. I learned many things that day: One needs to pay for the GPS voice activated app in order for it to work, always pack a sleeping bag for camp no matter what is stated on the packing list and above all else, take a gbf with you!