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Christmas 1998
Christmas 1998
Micah, Julie, Sara, and Caleb
(Julie is Sara, Micah and Caleb's cousin)
At approximately 8:30 on December 23rd we received a phone call that completely altered our Christmas plans. We had planned to spend approximately two weeks split between Kim's family in Durham and Jason's family in Greensboro. We had very carefully made our plans for when we would open presents with each part of our family so that we could spend as much time as possible with everyone and not feel rushed. God apparently had different plans for us.
For anyone reading this who don't know the story, Jason's uncle Gary had called in mid October wanting to know if we knew anyone interested in adopting. We decided that it was time for us to add another child to our family since Micah would be two in January. We traveled to Virginia in late October to meet with the birth mother and had just finished our home study interviews in mid December when Kim and the children left for Durham. Jason drove up a few days later to supposedly enjoy a few weeks with family and friends.
The baby was due (we thought) at the end of January. Imagine our suprise when we received a phone call on December 23rd saying that the birth mother was in labor and on her way to the hospital. At first, we assumed it was false labor but when she got to the hospital everything was confirmed. It turns out that the birth mother had miscalculated her due date and the baby was really due at the end of December.
Jason and Kim calmly and cooly, :-), packed our things, made several quick calls to the lawyer in Virginia and our social worker in Florida, gathered baby clothes and other necessities from friends and family and put the children in the car and headed off to Virginia just as an ice storm blew in. Because of the short notice and the fact that some legal papers had to be typed before the Christmas holidays began (we were informed that the lawyer's secretary was leaving on vacation and he did not type) we had to decide on a name for the baby in the car on the way. We finally settled on one boy's name and one girl's name and called Uncle Gary so he could tell the lawyer. We had to stop twice to chip ice off of the windshield and grill of our minivan (only the extreme cold kept it from overheating), there was over 1 1/2 inches of ice on the hood of the van when we reached Richmond. By the time we reached Newport News there was about three inches of ice on the side mirrors. Because of ice and accidents the 3-4 hour trip from Durham to Newport News turned into a six hour adventure.
Caleb Glenn was born at 3:52 p.m. on the 23rd as we were approaching Petersburg (you'll have to wait to find out what the girl's name was). He weighed 7 lbs. 1 oz. and was 20 inches long. He was extremely red and had a very bad black eye because of difficulties during delivery. The children didn't seem to mind his black eye or his intrusion into their lives and soon after our arrival they were announcing to everyone who walked by that their baby brother was in the nursery. They are still very proud siblings, telling total strangers in the store that "that's my baby." Jason, Sara and Micah spent the first night with Gary and Melinda while Kim spent it in the hospital to be with the birth mother and see Caleb. On Thursday we moved into Townplace Suites, a wonderful hotel. We have a nice two bedroom suite with a kitchen and living room. The staff has been absolutely wonderful, helping out in several ways. Uncle Gary arranged for us to get a remarkable rate for a two bedroom suite but when we found out that we were going to have to stay longer the hotel reduced our rate even more.
On our first night in the hotel, Christmas Eve, we lost power. We drove around for about an hour, waiting for the power to come back on and trying to find a place to eat. The children were begging to play at McDonalds but when we got there they had already closed. We then proceeded to drive to Wendy's and Burger King trying to find a place. At each one we ran into about 20 cars in line at the drive through and more than 20 people waiting in line inside. Finally, at Burger King, we decided to go in anyway since they had an indoor play area and the children would finally get their long awaited chance to play. It was very hard to explain to them why we had to get back in the car when we go to the door and realized that it was locked. We finally gave up and went back to our hotel and ate our Christmas Eve dinner of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches by the light of the emergency lights in the hall. We can't complain since at least there was room in the inn. After supper, we went to Super KMart (they were running on generators) and bought flashlights. Our power finally came back on around 4:00 a.m. Christmas morning.
Fortunately, we had brought all of our Christmas presents (except for Kim's since Jason procrastinated too long and they hadn't arrived as of that time.) Christmas Eve we bought the children some stockings and candy and a few window stickers for Christmas decorations. On Christmas morning we had one of our nicest, most stress-free Christmases ever. Sara couldn't wait to open her presents (and Micah's) and all were happy with their gifts. Caleb finally came home with us on December 26th. He had to stay a few extra days at the hospital because he had problems maintaining his temperature and was not eating well.
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