Weekend Snapshots: A L-o-n-g Weekend with a Beautiful Ending!

On Saturday afternoon, Ron answered a phone call from our daughter Kristin. Of course, we have been on Baby Watch, and so my ears perked up! Her water had broken, but they had company (what?!) and they were going to eat (what?!) and she would call back when she was ready for me to come to stay with the children. (How about now?!)

How do you proceed with your day when you're waiting for such a thing? 

After sitting by the phone for a while, we decided that we'd go to Chick-fil-A and have an early dinner. We ate and lingered and were regaled by stories from the dining room host. Still no call. (What?! Don't you remember that you have an hour's drive to the hospital?!) We called "to let them know where we were" (but really to find out what was happening there) and arranged that Bekah and I would arrive around 7:30. 

We arrived...to an excited household and a calm and happy mommy-to-be. (Whew!) All of the pre-labor jitters were ours, not theirs. 

All was well as they showed me the girls' freshly painted bedroom, gave the children good-bye hugs, and headed off to the hospital, via a stop for gas. 

Brian called later to let us know that Kristin had been admitted, but that it looked like it would be a long night. (So there really was no rush to get to the hospital. We grandparents get a little more uptight than the parents, I suppose.) We all went to bed, hoping that there would be a baby by morning. 

No baby by morning. 

After breakfast and chores, I brought the children to our house. We went to church, ate spaghetti and meatballs, played games...and waited...and waited. Every time the phone would ring or a text would come, our faces lit up, only to have our shoulders sag when we realized it was someone else who wanted news. 

Finally, the news we were waiting for! She had arrived at 4:14 pm! 

Within an hour, we were all headed to the hospital to meet our new sister/niece/granddaughter. 

Macie Violet,

our newest little blessing

I don't have pictures of the children with their new baby sister, because all of us were not allowed in the room at the same time, and we let the five of them go first. I do have sibling photos of Macie's first moments at home which I will share another day.

Yesterday, Macie and her parents came home to begin life as a family of eight.

And now we await the arrival of our son and his family this weekend!

It is not an uneventful, tea-sipping, movie-watching, clean-out-the-closet kind of January here! The new year is off with a bang!