Welcome Baby Kinley

Today we welcomed our first granddaughter into the world. Kinley Lynne Barnhart was born at 11:46 this morning (mountain time) and weighed in at 6 lbs. 9 oz. and is 19.5 inches long. They had texted that they were going to the hospital because Stephanie was in labor and I was waiting to hear word of her birth. I went to lunch with Russ this morning and I stopped at Kirklands afterwards. Cory sent me a text and said to pray for Steph because they were taking her in for an emergency C-section. I won't lie, it scared me quite a bit because I'm still haunted from memories of losing my youngest son and I definitely didn't want them to ever experience that. I left there and went for gas praying the whole time. I was starting to get a little nervous because it was taking so long. I guess I didn't realize how worked up I was getting. I was pleading with God to let Stephanie have her little girl and not to scare Aimee when she was due shortly after. Aimee is a friend of Cory and Stephanies (and mine) who had a miscarriage at about two weeks from term. She had finally gotten over her fears from that and was pregnant with #2 and I didn't want something to scare her so close to term. I guess I was just a little over the top in the worry category that day but I tried to turn it over to God to handle it. As I got to the light at Old Norton which leads to my neighborhood I finally get a text from Shelle (Stephanie's Mom with a picture of Kinley. I had to pull into the church parking lot on the corner because I started crying and thanking God for answered prayers. She was beautiful like I knew she would be. I can't wait to meet her in a few weeks when I go for second shift after her Mom leaves CO. One of these days I'll master the "not worrying" thing. I try very hard to leave things with God and let HIM handle things instead of my worrying about it. but I guess the memories of losing a baby will always be with me. It's something I hope no one else will ever have to go through. I'm thankful that God has blessed Cory and Stephanie with three beautiful children. I know that little Miss Kinley will have her Daddy's heart from the start. Welcome to the world baby Kinley. Nana is sooo in love already.

Goodbye Sweet Mama

It's been the roughest of weeks for me as I said goodbye to my dear sweet Mama. Russ and I had just gotten back from our Jekyll Island trip and were just sitting down to relax for the evening of September 23, when Angie called to tell me Mom had passed away. It hit me hard because I'd just talked to Angie the day before and she'd told me Mom was doing well so I guess I really wasn't expecting it so soon. She died in Angie's arms which was a great comfort to me although Angie will probably be haunted by that for a little bit. Angie was an excellent caretaker and it was nice to know that if Mom was scared as she passed from this life that at least she knew that Angie was holding her and helping her up to the very end.

I had a tearful evening as I reflected on the past year. She was my Mom, my biggest fan, my person that had been with me from the beginning. I loved her dearly and it will take me a little while to sort through all the many phases of grief. If I could change one thing about this week, it would have been to have a more supportive husband that night. He just went to bed while I processed the news. I called each of my kids and Hannah sat and cried with me on the phone. Cory and Amber were both working but sent messages through the night checking on me. Later I talked to Kara who also cried with me. It was a lonely night. All my siblings were together and had each other and I was here grieving alone.

The next day Russ and I packed our bags and drove towards Akron. We spent the night in the Cincinnati area and arrived mid-morning on Thursday at Angie's house. The church group had already begun bringing food. Angie and I cried together and she told me all the details of the night before. I told her about my night. Kara and family arrived a few hours after we did and we all had lunch at Angie's and then got dressed to go to the funeral home for our family viewing time. I have to say that I was quite impressed with the quality of care that went into fixing her up for the viewing. She looked very natural and true to her. She looked like she had just fallen asleep. They dressed her in one of her favorite pink dresses. She looked beautiful and I think all of us found comfort in seeing her that way. They had her set up in a private viewing room and allowed us as much time as we needed to be with her. We each took some time to say our goodbyes and Bobby, Kara and Neal and I stood around and told Grandma/Mom stories. There was a little laughter and a lot of tears. Mom would have wanted it that way. She loved watching us joking with each other. Before we said our final goodbyes, Angie suggested that we sing to her. There was only one song that fit the occasion. I asked Russ to lead "God Be With You Til We Meet Again". It was beautiful to have the whole family standing around her casket singing and harmonizing together. It brought chills up my spine as one of the most beautiful moments of the whole week. I can't say we all made it through the song without crying but we were each strong for part of it and it was awesome.

Yesterday, (Friday) we had a graveside service for her and Don Wright officiated the event. My cousin, Tim Boyd came in from D.C. and Tina and Kim (Aunt Myrtie's girls) and Kim's husband, Donald came in from Florida. They had five chairs set up for us and we sat in birth order. As I sat and listened to the sermon, I thought about what an awesome gift that Mom had given us by living a faithful Christian life. We knew that she was now onward towards her reward that she'd spent her lifetime working towards. I felt a sense of happiness for her that day and I felt a sense of calm as I sat there knowing that her suffering was over and she was with Dad now. I could picture in my mind him standing at the gate to take her hand and say "I've been waiting for you". None of us knows what truly happens at the point of death but it's comforting for me to picture in my mind her joining my Dad and all her siblings and cousins and parents in singing praises to our God.

She was buried in the same grave as my Dad. They used to joke that he got the bottom bunk and she gets the top bunk. We stayed until they lowered her down into the grave with him. Her name was already put on the grave marker. I looked at my sister as they lowered her down and said "I guess we are now orphans". No matter how much you think you are prepared, it's always hard to lose a parent. In a sense we'd lost her the year before when the dementia kicked in but we could at least still give her a hug, say I love you and hear her say I love you right back. Although they called it alzheimer's I'm not sure that's what she truly had because she just went into a silent world. She knew each one of us until the very end. She could also identify every relative in any pictures I showed her up until my last time with her at her birthday. My siblings may have been together the night of her death while I was alone but they all described to me how hard it was to see her after she died. I, on the other hand, was blessed to have my last memory of her as a beautiful vision. She was laying in her bed as I was leaving Angie's that night and she raised her hand and waved to me and smiled. I ran into her room and hugged her and told her I was leaving. I told her I loved her and she said "I love you too hun."(honey). We waved one more time and I walked to my car crying because in my heart I knew that was my last time to see her alive. But oh what a beautiful memory to comfort me this week.

My Happy Place

Russ and I have spent the weekend at our favorite place...Jekyll Island. Sadly, tomorrow we will have to venture home to Fayetteville but we always leave refreshed after relaxing at the beach. When Russ first made the reservations we were expecting beautiful weather but as we got about a week out we checked the forecasts and it was calling for rain the entire weekend. We were a little disappointed and thought we'd be spending the weekend reading inside.

As we got closer to our departure, we started seeing better forecasts with rain on Saturday and nicer days on Sunday and Monday. Rain was expected to return on Tuesday. Russ put both bikes in the car so that we'd both have one to ride and we left on Friday afternoon arriving around 6 p.m.  Russ decided to take off on his bike that evening even though it was raining. lightly. I stayed in the house and unpacked all of our things.

Me - before the rain

The cloud build-up

Drenched me

The next day I slept in rather than doing my normal "watch the sunrise" because I figured it was going to be too wet. The skies started clearing up by noonish so I took off on a long walk after lunch. Russ left around the same time for a long bike ride. I had gone about an hour out walking and when I turned around to head back towards the house I realized that the clouds had been building up behind me and were looking quite dark. I picked up my pace but it wasn't fast enough because about half way back (still a 1/2 hour walk) it started pouring down rain. I made sure my camera and cell phone were protected and then just enjoyed the rain. I hadn't played in the rain for who knows how many years but it was fun to just get totally drenched, stomp in puddles and have rain dripping off my hair. My clothes were pretty heavy when I hung them out to dry. I squeezed a lot of water out of them. Russ returned about a half hour after me and he was equally soaked. He'd been at the other side of the island when it hit. It's not often you find a good "play in the rain" storm without lightning and thunder.

After that day we had two days of beautiful sunshine and we walked on the beach, watched sunrises and sunsets and went on bike rides. I enjoy the solitude of the Island when it's not tourist season and I love sitting on the deck with a good book and the music of the waves crashing against the rocks. I love watching the sun rise in the morning and walking the beach in prayer. I love the sunsets over the bridge, humting for sand dollars and chasing the sea gulls. The Island has captured my heart because of the peace I feel when there. Yep, it's my happy place for sure.

Recipe for a Happy Nana

Nothing puts the smile on my face quite like spending time with my grandkids. We just returned from a trip to Colorado to see Liam and Ryan. (We saw Cory and Stephanie too but the boys were more fun than them.) We picked a great week to go because the weather was gorgeous the whole time we were there. Cory just built the play set we'd helped them buy for the boys and so it was fun to spend time outside with them in their new back yard. They moved in June to one of Stephanie's parents' houses and they now have more space inside their house and more play area outside. The boys seemed happier there with plenty of room to run and play.
I found some "Cars" themed computers for them at a flea market and I was anxious for them to see them. We always bring some kind of fun toy and at least one book every time we visit. I knew that these would give me "way cool Nana points" when they saw them. I was right. Liam was mesmerized by them and wanted to spend all day playing the games. We sat down with him and showed him how to play a few of the games and he was playing several of them on his own by the time we left. Seeing their eyes light up when they saw them was pretty fun.

The Mater computer was made for a younger child than the Lightning McQueen one was but they both liked just hearing them talk to them. For $5 each, I was thrilled to find them in basically new condition.

Even though they loved the computers they still love the books I bring too. They've got quite a collection now of favorite stories from Nana and Papa. I hope they will both grow up to be readers. I sure do cherish having them sit in my lap for story time because I know one of these days they'll be too busy for Nana and reading books together. 

I love watching them interact with each other and I love their individuality. Watching Liam is like seeing Cory grow up a second time. They look so much a like and even have similar personalities. Liam is more timid to try new things where Ryan is more brave to try things and then form an opinion. They make me smile and always have. My heart is full when they call my name and ask me to come and play or read. They are one of my best recipes for a happy day.

She Made It To 90!

When Mom fell in January, if you'd have asked me if she would make it to her birthday, I would have confidently said no. We thought, based on the assessment of the doctors caring for her that she had less than a week to live. But those Drs. didn't know our Mom. We all call her the energizer bunny because she keeps getting back up after tough challenges and keeps on going. In July, the nurses were telling my sister that I should probably come soon if I want to see her alive because they were seeing signs that she was nearing the end of her life. I, knowing my Mom, waited to see what she would do and as usual she perked back up and was alert again. All along I've said that this birthday was my goal for her. All of her siblings died at 89 or younger and I wanted to see her make it longer than any of them and SHE DID IT.

I was in Akron for the past week and just got home last night. I went early so I could do some more work at her house and continue to sort through papers and boxes to clear out some of the clutter. My main goal for being there was to celebrate with Mom on reaching 90. My first few days there she seemed very tired and in one of her unclear phases but as the week went on, she became more alert and clearer. I always ask her when I'm there..."Do you know who I am?" and she'll look at me and smile and say. "Yes. You're Donna." and my heart does a happy dance because her forgetting me has been my dread from the beginning. Angie told her I had come into town for a birthday party and she asked her if she knew whose birthday it was. She said she didn't and Angie said..."Your birthday is on Wednesday, Mom and you will be 90 years old." She looked at her with a surprised face and said..."Oh my!". I don't think she expected to make it. Even before she got sick it seemed like 89 was the magic number for her when she expected to die. Since all her siblings died by 89, I think she figured she would do the same. She was preparing for it by making sure everything was in order before she hit 89. I always assured her I thought she would live longer than all of them but she never seemed to embrace that possibility.

We all met at Angie's for a 1:00 birthday party since Kay and Dale had to leave for work by 3:30. Angie had done her hair and had her fixed up with a little makeup. She looked beautiful. We all had our picture taken with her individually and also took quite a few group photos. I think all of us expect that this will be our last time all together with her alive. She's been known to surprise us before but we're all feeling like the end is near so the urgency was greater this time to take as many pictures as we could. We also took individual pictures of our hands with hers as well as group ones. I know I will cherish having all of these pictures. Mom seemed fairly alert and seemed to know it was her day but it was tiring for her too. We read all her cards to her and then took her to the kitchen for cake. We sang to her and then Dale helped her blow out her candles. She tried but she just didn't have the strength to blow them out herself. I know we wore her out though because after the party Angie put her in bed and she fell right to sleep and slept the rest of the day. I stayed with her that night while they went to church and she was asleep the entire time.

My prayer this year has been for her to see this day and I knew that God has had a hand in keeping her here for this one last celebration of her life. I know this will be her last birthday on this earth because her body is failing her at rapid speed but I'm thankful for this one little day of happiness before the end where we could all be together one last time to celebrate the life of a wonderful woman, our Mom. She may be tiny but she's a tough lady and I thank God that he gave me such a special lady to be my Mom. I'll end with a few more pictures of the day.

HAPPY 90th BIRTHDAY, MOM!!! WE ALL LOVE YOU!!!

Yesterday and Today

After spending most of the summer traveling either home to see Mom or to help with the grandkids, I'm finally finding time to do what I love to do most...scrapbook. I signed up for Ali Edwards' "Yesterday and Today" class in May when she offered it again on her website. I wanted to take it when it was originally released with Big Picture Classes but the timing of the class was bad and/or I didn't want to spend the money at the time it was offered. I'd heard many people raving about what  good class it was so I was wishing that I'd found a way to sign up for it. Needless to say I was thrilled to see she was releasing it on her website at a lower price than BPC had originally offered it.

Since signing up for the class I've been focused on getting all the layouts done rather than adding it to the list of unfinished classes I've collected. I'm loving all the layouts and the stories I'm getting recorded from the class. I thought I'd share some of the layouts on my blog since I haven't shared any scrapbook pages in quite awhile.

We started with a cover page that consisted of one picture from our past and 5 smaller photos of us at various stages of our lives. I opted to put all the pictures in black and white except the "today" photo. Very fun to see pictures of me at various ages together in one place.

Next we did a page full of random memories from our childhoods. If we didn't have a picture to go with the memory we were told to either find one online or use embellishments in the picture spots. I had great fun sitting down and writing memories of the neighborhood store where we bought our penny candy, the amusement park we went to every summer, collecting pop bottles and riding the city buses downtown. I was excited to have some of my smaller stories written all together on one page. I may do a few more of these since I loved the process of it so well. I focused on summertime memories on this page but I think I could extend to memories of each season next.

Next we did pages on "hard stories to tell" and I did a page on the day I delivered my stillborn baby boy. It was a story I'd done on a page before but I didn't like the way it was set up so I was happy to just take the journaling from the original page and use it in this format. It's always therapeutic to get some of those hard stories written so that we can process them. I have a few others that I'd like to get recorded in this album as well. Once I get all the pages for the class completed I plan to go back and do additional pages on each theme.

The next assignment was a page with no photos that included either life lessons or things you don't know about me themes. I opted to write out lessons I've learned in 54 years. I love that she gives us some digital items to add to the pages to help them come together nicely. Several of these were completed after I attended the Scrapbook Expo in Duluth, GA and I was able to put to use some of the beautiful new paper I bought there. I love this page as well and enjoyed doing a photo-less page for once. I'm also happy to have a few words of advice for future generations recorded.

The next lesson had two assignments and so far have been my favorite of all the pages. This one explores the idea of "the Unexpected Life" and we were asked to contrast how our lives are different from the one we dreamed of as a child.  I chose to do mine on all the opportunities we've had to travel in our adult lives that I never could have imagined doing in my dreams for my life.

The second assignment was quite a bit of work because I had to round up 29 photos of relatives showing an evolution of family. In Ali's page she put many random pictures of relatives that she didn't even know who they were. I'm very fortunate that I know almost everyone in my collection of heritage photos thanks to my Mom's genealogy hobby. I focused on both sets of grandparents at different ages and my parents at different ages and added in some Aunts and Uncles. We were then supposed to add our own families to the far right. I was fun to see my parents at various stages of their lives as well as my grandparents and realize that we all weathered our way through each age. I think this was my most favorite so far that we've done. It was definitely the most time consuming. It took me a few days just to decide how I wanted to journal on the page.

As we transition away from older photos we had one last assignment to do a comparison page of "then  vs. now"  I found these pictures of Cory hugging me with a similar pose and I immediately knew my page would be about our relationship then versus now and how much fun I am having watching him as a daddy now. I encourage him to enjoy every moment of his kids because they will all grow up in a blink of an eye. That time between these two pictures certainly did fly by quickly. I should also mention that I decided to put butterflies on most of the pages throughout this album to signify change and growth and so you will see them often.

This is the last page I'll share from this class for this post. It's the last one I've completed and I'm in the process of working on the next few lessons. Ali's website is down for two weeks as she does a transition of her business and revamping of her website so our access to the class is limited for the next few weeks. I have the handouts saved though and will do most of them through the information on the handouts. This page uses pocket page protectors which I haven't used until now. We were to write three statements about 11 words and then find pictures to illustrate them. Her page was called "perspective" and I chose instead to to "introspection". I now have to decide what page I will put on the opposite sides of each pocket page. I'll probably do a two page spread for each with pictures in the pocket pages and a larger photo and long story on the left side. I'm thoroughly enjoying this class and am hoping she will offer some of her other classes on her website as well. I'd really like to do her "Hello Story" class as well.

What a Difference a Year Makes

It's been a rough year for my siblings and I as we've watched the rapid decline of our Mom. This picture was taken in June of last year when I met up with my sisters and Mom at our annual family reunion. She knew it would be her last one but we were hopeful she'd see a few more. I visited in September and she was doing fine. She took Russ and I outside to give us plants to take home and showed us her flowers. I took her and Angie out to eat and she served herself at the buffet and talked to us. She seemed to be acting like her same ol' self.

In October, Barb called and said that she had to start taking over Mom's financial stuff because she had forgotten to sign checks, missed paying a few bills and was seeming a little more confused. They took her to the doctor for some tests and he confirmed that she has dementia. From there things started happening at rapid speed and by November she needed someone to help her get dressed and fed. She started doing things that were uncharacteristic of her and would get into OCD types of loops and they'd have to redirect her.

She would have confused spells and then clear spells. By December she was even more dependent needing assistance for even the simplest of tasks. She was losing weight rapidly too. This picture is of us at her doctor's appointment after a CAT scan classified her dementia as Alzheimer's. I started checking out books from the library and reading up on what to expect. Her symptoms didn't mesh with most of the books I read on Alzheimer's. It was going way faster than they described and instead of talking a lot Mom had gone into a silent world. I would say "I love you" and she would say "Okay" and she would answer questions with either a "yes", "no" or "okay" but offer little more conversation. I was beginning to think she was having a bunch of mini-strokes. I was told these would not show up on any scans but it's common for the elderly to have them without anyone knowing.  It was just happening too fast for just dementia.

Angie was driving over to her house every day to get her up and out of bed and feed her breakfast. Richard would get her lunch and keep an eye on her and then Barb would get her to bed at night and bathe her. It was getting harder and harder to keep watch on her. She wasn't very steady on her feet anymore and a few nights Barb heard her getting up in the middle of the night and moving in a loop to the bathroom, back to her bed, pull the covers up, pull them off, and then back to the bathroom. Other times she would get up and be searching in drawers for something but not know what she was looking for. My siblings were starting to get concerned that she would fall during the night.

In mid-January their worst fears happened and she got out of bed and fell flat on her face. Barb heard it and ran in and she was bleeding and vomiting. They called an ambulance and she was taken to the hospital. She was bruised, had a big lump on her head and had a brain bleed. We were told rarely does anyone her age survive a brain bleed. They didn't give us much hope that she would survive it. She was immediately put into Paliative Care and taken off all her medicines. They stopped her IV's for fluids and were just going to let her go. But....they didn't know our Mom very well. She has a way of bouncing back. Prayers were being lifted up for her and she pulled through. Angie and Barb continued giving her water and feeding her. They eventually had to change her status back to Hospice care. She was amazing them. They then put her in a Rehabilitation Center to try to get her taking care of herself and walking again. She worked at it diligently and you could see in her face how hard she was trying to get back to normal.

They finally released her to home hospice care in mid February and they took her to Angie's house to live. Hospice provided a hospital bed and all the things she needs for at-home care. Angie is her full-time care giver   now and she is doing an amazing job. Mom continues to decline rapidly and

we're not sure how much longer we will have her with us. She is down to about 70 lbs and is eating very little now. She is more confused each day but some days she is very alert and we see glimpses of Mom in there. Hospice has told us several times that they don't expect her to live much longer and she continues to amaze them with rebound after rebound.

We've all prepared ourselves that she might not be here by her birthday in August but I would love to see her make it to 90. She's a fighter for sure but her body is failing her and I'm fairly sure she won't see 2015. But God can do great miracles and her time has already been determined by HIM...so we will wait and see what HIS plan is for her.

I hate this disease called Alzheimers. It's hard watching her become something she never wanted to become. It totally scares me knowing this disease is strongly in our genes on her side and if any of us live to be very old, we too might follow this path. In some ways it's like looking at a mirror into our futures and it's not a reflection any of us want to see of ourselves. I love my Mama and I pray that God will give her a peaceful and pain-free departure from this life and wrap her in HIS arms as she goes to her place of rest.

It amazes me how rapidly this disease has attacked her as I write and compare the June picture at the top to the June picture at the bottom. In just 9 months we've watched her fade from us at warp speed. I guess in some ways it's more merciful than 5-10 years of this. If I had known then what I know now there are so many things I would have done differently. I would have talked to her more and asked more questions and had her tell me more stories. The stories and memories are all lost within the depths of her confused mind. I really miss talking to her now. To anyone who may read this, take time to hug your Mom and hear her stories. Take a lot of pictures and take her out to eat or let her show you her garden. Sometimes we all get wrapped up in our busy lives and forget about our elderly. They have so much to teach us about life. Knowing how much she loved her crafts and her genealogy it's sad watching her staring at a television now because that's all she can do. She kept busy in life and I had hoped with as much as she used her brain it would prevent dementia from finding her but it didn't. All the dates she had locked in her brain are gone, all the knowledge of sewing and crocheting and ceramics are gone. So she sits and watches TV or sleeps in her chair and waits......and occasionally she'll surprise me with an "I love you, too, Donna" when I'm visiting or saying hi on the phone and it warms my heart. I cherish those words so much.

A Real Black Friday for Amber

We spent Thanksgiving at Hannah's house last year (2013) and Amber drove over from Durham to spend the day with us. She had to leave early to get back to work her Black Friday shift from 8 pm to 8 am. Hannah, Dantrell and I went Black Friday shopping in Goldsboro. Hannah wanted to buy a new laptop for school and we had several other items we wanted to get. The next morning Hannah came to wake me up and said Amber's car was stolen. While she was working (shortly after the shift started) someone went into the break room and stole keys and wallets from the employees lockers. Amber's keys were among them and when she went outside after her shift, she realized her car was gone. She had left her purse in the car but had put her debit card in her pocket because she had planned to buy something. So the thief got her purse, wallet and several other items with her car. She, of course, was crying her eyes out. She hadn't slept for almost 24 hours and was exhausted. This car was her first vehicle given to her by her Dad after her first year of college. It had gone with her on many road trips. Her boyfriend, Casey, was in Charlotte with his parents and he hopped in the car to come back for her. We hurried and got ready and met her at her apt. Casey went and had the locks on her apartment changed because her apartment keys were also on the keychain. She felt violated and frustrated. She was sure she'd never see the car again.

Russ and I got online and looked for a good rental car deal and told her we would leave my Ion with her and if it wasn't returned we would give her that car as a replacement. We drove a rental car home to GA. She had to wait until Monday to talk to insurance because it was a holiday weekend. She filed a report with the police and after looking at surveillance tapes they realized they had his face on camera. He was wearing a hood and seemed to be familiar where one of the cameras was because he dodged it but there was another one that he obviously didn't see because he looked right at it unaware.

Since I was then left without a vehicle, Russ and I went car shopping. I had planned to make a trip to Akron to help out with Mom and needed a vehicle to get there with. We found a Nissan Altima in Seafoam Gray (blue/gray) that we liked. It had a few bells and whistles on it so it was quite an upgrade for us. We were sure we'd never see Amber's car again and had figured we would be signing the Saturn over to her. About a month or more after the theft, she got a call from the Insurance Agent that they had found her car in Jacksonville, FL abandoned on the side of the road with the car keys in it. They put it on a truck and brought it to her. It reeked of alcohol and cigarette smoke and had ashes all in it. Several of her items that were in her car (including her purse) were taken but they did leave a jacket that was worth something to her. They left her bible as well. (the most valuable thing in there). We gave Amber the choice of either keeping our Saturn and selling hers or keeping hers. She opted to keep her car because it had sentimental attachments to her. We drove out and picked up the Ion a few weeks later. It was quite a learning experience for her. It made me angry that someone thought it was a fun idea to joyride in a young girl's car. But in the end, I got a new car and we now have an extra vehicle to loan out as needed.

Let Me Tell You About My Grandkids - Part Two

In July of 2013 Hannah called to tell us that she and Dantrell were expecting their first child. I was so thrilled because I knew that as the Mom of the babies' Mom, I would get to be more involved in the whole event. It was so much fun going through this with her and feeling more a part of the entire pregnancy and birth. We found out in the fall that they were having a boy and they picked the name Brayden. The middle name wasn't decided until right before he was born. I told Hannah and Russ and I would get the furniture and bedding for his room as our gift to her. I found a bed and dresser I liked at IKEA and she was thrilled with it when I sent pictures. She wanted black furniture but all the main stores seemed to carry only dark browns. We looked at pre-made bedding sets with her and nothing seemed to grab her as what she wanted for his room. I asked Kelly Farmer if she would sew her bedding items for us and she was excited about it. We made a few trips to fabric stores sending Hannah pictures of different color combinations. She finally settled on yellow and gray chevrons and giraffes as the motif for decorations. I found a mobile at a thrift store and Kelly recovered it with one of the fabrics and hung giraffes from it. She made bumpers, a blanket, curtains and spit rags and bibs. She covered baskets with the fabric too. Hannah painted some pictures for the wall and she and I did some name pictures. I loved the way it all came together.

She was due on February 24 but I was sure she would go early so I drove to NC the first week of February to be there when he arrived. She was worried she would go into labor and I wouldn't be there so I wanted to reassure her by coming early. We had fun shopping for clothes for him and getting everything washed and ready. By the second week I think she was ready to be done so we started walking and eating pineapple and trying all the suggestions online for inducing labor. We started seeing her first real contractions on Saturday, Feb. 8 and then on Sunday we officially got her labor going. The hospital was maddening and didn't want her to come in too soon. Since it was her first child they expected her to be in labor for awhile. I timed contractions for awhile and then eventually overruled them and told them we were coming in. It was a good thing I did because she went fast. By 9:14 a.m. he was here...all 7 lbs and 4 ozs of cuteness. She had intended to have an epidural but she ended up doing a natural birth because it all went so fast. Brayden Xavier Hunt arrived on February 10. Aunt Amber arrived just in time to see him minutes after birth. It was love at first sight for all of us. Such a cute little one he is.

Hannah embraced Motherhood and was in awe of her new son. She grew up right before my eyes that day as she conquered several of her biggest fears. I was so proud of the way she fought through the natural birth and breast-feeding trials. She found strength she didn't know she had. She and Dantrell both were eager to learn how to care for baby Brayden and I spent another week and a half with them teaching them the ropes. Brayden and I bonded in those two weeks and it was hard to leave him. He is now almost six months old and cute as can be. He is one of the happiest babies I've seen in awhile. It doesn't take much to get him giggling and he loved to have fun. I'll end this post with a few of my favorite Brayden pictures.