We’re celebrating Angel girl’s 10th birthday today. (Her birthday is actually tomorrow, but because of the flooding in Des Moines, we’re celebrating a little early so Grandpa and Grandma can get back home before things get really bad.)
I remember well the events surrounding each of my children’s birth, but Angel Girl’s especially. I was pregnant when we finally decided to make our long-awaited move to the country. Our house was on the market and my husband was making the long trip to our farm several days a week to get things ready for us. They were long, busy days.
When we finally had an offer on the house, I was concerned that the closing date was very near to my due date. My husband wasn’t worried, of course! So we signed the papers and started packing.
The day before we moved my husband took a big load down to the farm and didn’t return until about 10:30 that night. He was exhausted!
Sure enough, about 1:30 in the morning I woke him up to say it was time to call the midwife. He was so tired he replied, “We can’t call anybody now, we’ll wake them up!”
I told him that was the whole idea and I would be waiting in the car. He took a quick shower, made the phone calls, and drove me to a friends house, where we had set up to have a home birth just in case.
Our sweet little Angel Girl was born in a hot tub at 6:30 in the morning. My husband enjoyed her for a few minutes, then headed out the door to pick up the U-Haul. He spent the next 36 hours without sleep as he packed us up and got us moved, with lots of help from family and friends.
Meanwhile, I sat like a queen holding my sweet little baby girl while someone else was watching my other three children, packing the last of my belongings and cleaning my old house.
We spent a few days at my husband’s parents to recover before driving down and starting our new life in the country in a run down old farm house with lots of dreams, a five year old, a four year old, a two year old and
a newborn.
Whew! Those we not easy days, but they were good ones. We felt so blessed. We still do.
So Angel Girl’s birthday is more than a celebration of her life with us, it also marks the beginning of our life in the country. It’s a good life and one we treasure.
Happy Birthday Angel Girl, we love you!
And Happy 10th Anniversary of Country Living, we love you, too!
Well…actually Buddy set the table and mashed the potatoes and cooked the green beans while Mom did most of the frying!
After a recent walk with my husband to survey the damage done by the neighbor’s wandering pigs, I can say with all honesty…
It’s officially here – the fifth season of the year.