My Two Girls (from Chad)

January 14th, 2008 has now become the greatest day of my life. My beautiful wife gave birth to our precious new daughter, Lauren Elizabeth, at 10:34pm via cesarian section. Lauren is 7 lbs, 10 oz and 19.5 inches long, has lots of dark hair (like her dad) and long eye lashes.

After a total of 14 hours of labor and a baby who seemed to be lacking GPS or a map, the call was made to move to the O.R. With baby having managed the labor very well, we took our time and I got suited up. Within about 10 minutes of being in the room, the baby was out and I got to tell Mindy it was a girl. We were shocked seeing as how we were convinced it was a boy.

Mindy was then taken to recovery and the baby was taken to the nursery to be checked out. The baby was crying and screeming and seemed to recognize my voice, definitely Mindy's and even quieted down when we said the name Westin. I went to tell the grandparents that mom and baby were doing great, I showed them the footprints and measurements, but refused to tell them the name or gender. An hour and a half later, once Mindy was moved back into her room and the baby brought in, we paraded the grandparents and Karlee into the room, then showed them two baby blankets and asked them to take the blue one home because we needed the pink one. You can imagine what happened next. Lots of pictures, tears and oohs and ahhs. Then we sent them home.

It is now 2:54am, Mindy is sleeping and the baby is in the nursery. I just wanted to share the great news before trying to get some sleep. We're going to need it.

Thank you to everyone whose thoughts and prayers helped us navigate the hours.

AND, Thank the Lord for wonderful doctors and nurses whose vast knowledge and comforting words allowed me to wake up with one girl and fall asleep with two. Today I saw a miracle.

- Chad