She’s here.  

Really here.

All eight pounds nine ounces of ooey, gooey snuggle stuff.  

As of 8:21 AM on February 27, 2013, my sweet little Muffin is here.  

The doctor tried to send me back home.  Ninety minutes back home in a treacherous Iowa snow storm.  She didn’t believe me.  I begged her to think again.  After a generous amount of cajoling, we were a go.  

We sailed downtown to the hospital on literal sheets of ice in a blinding snowstorm, nearly taking out the 6th Street bridge.  But we made it.  I knew it would take some time and The Man still had to take the three princesses to a friend’s house.  That would be a good hour of driving on a decent day.  We decided it best for the four of them to wait it out at a hotel until morning and make a run for it then.  There were no plans to induce me until morning. 

(Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails. Proverbs 19.21 NIV)

Things quickly changed around 3:00 am when my water broke and I was really in the thick of it.  My nurse looked me square in the eye declaring, “Honey, this ain’t your first rodeo.  You better call your husband.”  

We were still well within the throes of a good old-fashioned Iowa storm.  The Man was taken back by this drastic turn of events, but what could we do?  He wrangled the kids together in the wee hours of the morning and braved treacherous roads to get them where they needed to be so he could join me.  I tortured myself with worry, weathering contractions, and distracting myself with late-night 80s sitcoms on the television.

And when I couldn’t take it anymore, I called Mom.  And she came.  And she let me squeeze the living daylights out of her hand through every bone-crushing contraction while we waited.

And then… he came.  Just in time.  And then the tears came.  Of joy.  Of relief.  Of impending pain.  And Princess Number Four made entrance shortly thereafter. 

Now, we are home.  And happy.  And healthy.  And virtually sleepless.  But never happier.  And they are very good things to come.  Good, good things.  



Thank God—he’s so good.
    His love never quits!

Psalm 118.29 (MSG)