Hello Arkansas!

It is 8:00 pm local time and we just made it to the hotel.  Things are going great.  We are exhausted, but joyful!  In case you haven't heard, last night at about 5:30 we received a text from our Marshallese coordinator that Andy was heading to the hospital.  I called Andy and she said she was on her way, but not to worry.  She would "call me when she was better".  After talking to our attorney and the coordinator, they advised us to hold tight and wait until we knew if Andy was admitted before making the long drive to Arkansas.  After all with her new due date she was almost a month early.

In the meantime, I was frantically racing back to our house.  When I received the call, I was at Chase's fall baseball game.  Chris and Chase rushed to the office so he could wrap up some work things and I took Rickson and raced back home.  Our neighbor graciously agreed to watch Rickson so I could throw things in a suitcase.  We were ready... but not ready....

Mom and Dad headed down to our house to help us get pack and get out the door.  About 6:30 I found out that Andy had not only been admitted, but taken back for an emergency c-section.  Lani was so wonderful about keeping us informed.  At 8:30 I found out that Alani Elizabeth had been born.  She weighed 4 lbs 15 oz.  (at the time we were told 4 lbs).  She was doing great and so was Andy.

At 9:30 pm we were pulling out of the driveway with a haphazardly packed car.  But we were on our way.  We drove several hours and then stopped for the night.  Chris thought it would be best to stop along the way and not push it.  It turns out I think I slept about a total of 2 hours, so I may as well have driven us through the night. We woke up and got on the road at 7:30 this morning and made it to Arkansas at 3:30 local time.  Throughout our drive Lani kept sending us pictures of Alani.  It helped the drive go quicker.

Alani is the sweetest little thing I could have imagined.  When we walked in the room it looked as if a little doll was laying in Andy's lap.  I have never seen someone so tiny and precious.  We spent several hours at the hospital holding her and catching up with Lani and Andy.  It was amazing to watch Andy watching Rickson.  Such a neat connection we have.  They had more family than I could even count come up to the hospital to meet us.  We met Aunties and Uncles and cousins and nieces and nephews.  They all wanted to see us.  It was great.

So now we are back to the hotel.  We have settled in and are preparing for bed.  I think this will be our last night of good sleep for quite a while!  I plan to be back at the hospital at 8:30 tomorrow for the pediatrician visit.  Sweet dreams!

Until tomorrow...