As I was hitting the snooze button not wanting to leave my cozy bed Friday morning to get ready for work, the phone rang. I had a sneaking suspicion that this might be "the call", but after a few false alarms in past weeks, I didn't want to get my hopes up.
I needed some motivation to wake up that day, so the phone ringing was a good start. I said "hello" and sure enough, it was my mom on the other side. She said that Stephanie had been having contractions since 4am and that they were heading to the hospital just as soon as they could get ready.
When Collin & Steph arrived at the hospital, it was the real deal!! They were in labor. We were all thrilled and full of anxious concern and excitement. We would hopefully be greeting the newest member of our family before the day was done!
Mom and Dad packed up the car and picked me up in Temple. We headed up to Dallas praying and hoping the whole way that things would go well and that we wouldn't miss the big event! When we arrived, Stephanie was in good spirits. She had some really painful contractions for a few hours and was thrilled that the anesthesiologist had finally stopped by and done the epidural. We watched the monitors, chatted with the nurses and tried to let Steph rest as much as possible.
We headed to the waiting room and found Steph & Collin's friends Glen & Lydia, along with Glen's mom. Around 5:30 we got word that labor had progressed and it was almost time to push. Shortly thereafter, Janice arrived. Then Kendra and Errol.
Kendra suggested we circle up and say a special prayer for Collin, Stephanie and Avery. We prayed right there in the waiting room for the perfect miracle that was about to happen. About 3 minutes after we were finished with our prayer, I saw Collin run down the hall to greet us and I knew Avery was here!
He said "she's beautiful"! He was full of emotion and said he could barely talk. But, he had pictures. So, we saw a few pictures of Stephanie and Avery. 10 perfect fingers and 10 perfect toes. She was completely healty and amazing.
We were able to see Steph and Avery for a few minutes before they took the baby to the nursery. Avery was bundled up and Stephanie was holding her. We all flooded in the room and rushed to their side. Avery was calm and quiet, but wide-eyed and surveyed the room full of people staring at her. She took it all in as we oohed and aahed over her -- and flashed all sorts of bright lights at her as we all wanted pictures.
Collin, Stephanie and Avery were all reunited in the hospital room around 11:00pm. We then had our first chance to hold their precious little bundle of joy.
