Waiting For Gracie

Since today is Gracie’s birthday, I wanted to share my memories of the day of her birth, but I will have to start a few days before. Sometime on a Monday morning in November, Will called me and said "Ashley’s water just broke, and we are headed to the hospital." All I could think is, "it is just too soon." I offered the hopeful suggestion that perhaps the baby had just pressed really hard against her bladder and her water really hadn’t broken, but they were pretty sure it had. I immediately started to pray. Even though I’m the step-mother and a grandmother by default, I still love them like they were my own and was worried. Things rocked along for several days and most of you already know the story. The day that Will called to say that Ashley was actually in labor, we started getting things ready to go to Little Rock. I wanted to get my Mom to pick up Hannah from school, because I felt like she would get bored at the hospital and she just hates hospitals. She hates the bells and whistles of the machines, the needles, and the thoughts that somebody is hurting. Terry finally convinced me that she needed to be there. We arrived at UAMS about noon on November 28th. We ate lunch with Bro. Kelvin and Will and then we all commenced to wait. We popped in and out to see Ashley (who was pretty miserable) we walked the hallways, watched television, made friends with the other patient’s families, and grazed in the cafeteria. Sometime just before midnight, Gracie was born. We were standing in the hallway and saw them whip her out of the room and into another room. We waited and waited. They kept telling us she was doing as well as could be expected. I didn’t really know what that meant being that I wasn’t a doctor. Finally around 2:00 a.m. on November 29, we got to see little Gracie for the first time. She was little and tubes poked into her, and she was in a glass box, but she was alive and looked beautiful. Her aunt Hannah stayed awake for the entire thing, and she was in awe the first time she saw her. I had to print out pictures for her to take to school the next day, Yes, she did go to school that day despite the fact that we didn’t get home until 3:30 a.m. We were tired, but we were excited; Gracie was here. At age one, Gracie is so beautiful and perfect. She doesn’t have any physical defects as she could have had. In the process of this whole ordeal, Will got the job he now has today. God is so good and has such great plans. I’m so grateful for His grace on little Gracie.