Moving right along.....

These two children, Maddie and Charlie have been in our lives since before Maddie was born. Their parents joined our church and having no family close by, quickly became very close to us. Their mother, Nikki, had premature labor with both of these little darlings and spent a lot of time on bedrest, with me! I took her to so many doctor appointments that the doctor thought I was her mother. The day before Maddie was born, another friend and I literally walked Nikki all over downtown trying to get Maddie to come join us on the outside. Nikki was having contractions, but not a lot of pain. I kept saying you're not really in labor, labor HURTS! The next morning at 7 a.m. the daddy, Don called and said we're at the hospital. I could hear Nikki clearly in the background HURTING. Uh huh, I said, she's in labor!

I hurried to the hospital and was there during her labor and delivery. After her epidural, the rest was a piece of cake. She was smiling and chatting right up to the time Maddie poked her head out and said, "is this where I get off?" She's a very special little girl, I don't think she ever talked baby talk, but started right away just speaking like an adult.

She visited often and loved our Sam, here she is trying to pull his tail off. He was so patient with her. We miss that old boy!

At the top of this post is little Charlie....things were dramatically different when he was born. Nikki had once again been on bedrest to keep him from coming too soon. He was born a little earlier than Maddie and Nikki's labor was way different. Don called me at 1:00a.m. to tell me they were in the hospital. I told him to call me back when it was time to deliver. But, of course I couldn't sleep, so I got up, showered, dressed and made my way up to labor and delivery. We had a long nite, oh I mean morning. Nikki's epidural wasn't working right and Charlie dropped suddenly causing severe (and I do mean severe) pain.

But he was about to enter the world, and I was huddled with Nikki's aunt literally in the corner of the room. The isolette was ready, nurses were buzzing around and suddenly the doctor said "Come on over here". He thought we were the mothers! I said "Oh, I'll just stay right here." But he insisted.

When Charlie's head crowned, Nikki said, and said is a very mild word here...."I can't" and before I could stop myself, I said "she really can't!". Bless the doctor's heart, he got her focused and in a few minutes Charlie was born.....very blue, not making any noise. The doctor worked for a long time. The room was totally silent except for the doctor giving orders to the nurses. He finally got Charlie to breathe....gave him to the nurses who put him in the isolette and took clothes and rubbed and rubbed him. I know now they were stimulating him. They hurried him off to the nursery, leaving us to try and comfort Don and Nikki.

In a while, the doctor came back and called the aunt and me out into the hall and told us he believed Charlie had had a brain bleed. He then went in to tell the parents. The prayers started with vigor. Charlie was taken to NICU where he stayed for about 2 weeks. He seemed slow the first year, slow to turn over, to crawl, to walk......but then he started talking! And once he started, he made up for lost time. I truly believe God did a miracle in that little boy's life.

He is now a very robust, talkative, mischevious boy! All boy as they say!

Now to the sad part. Don applied for and was offered a position in a town far away from here. As soon as their house sells, they will be moving. They are excited and happy, but at the same time, we are all sad to say goodbye.

In the short 6 1/2 years they have been married, they have had two children, Don spent a year in Iraq with the National Guard and made our town their own. Now, I'm sure we will always keep in touch, probably visit now and then. We will surely go to their graduations and such, but it is still a little sad, just a little sad.