Day 416

Rebekah here.

I'll let Laura continue giving the updates through the day, but I wanted to take a time-out to pound out some of what I feel, before the real crazy emotion begins...

We're at the hospital. I AM SO TIRED. Everything is a blur, I can't even remember what day it is.

Everything started to sink in when we said goodbye to our good friends (Dan and Laura) on Monday morning. As I clung to my last piece of familiar, the emotion just poured out of me. I, all the sudden, felt like a child that was walking in shoes three sizes too big. I looked at Laura and said, "I don't know if I'm ready for this." My sweet friend grabbed my tear-streaked face, looked me square in the eyes and said...Yes you are. You were born for this. I held her a little longer and then we waved goodbye to our last piece of home...

From there on out, it was just the two of us.

As Laura reported, an hour from destination (man, were we looking forward to a night on the town!) Rebekah called and said, "I think you better drive through the night..."

We both had a large sense of "Of course...nothing else has gone according to plan, why now??" We never gave it a second thought....we just kept on driving...and driving...and driving...and driving. 18 hours in the car. Ug.

At about hour 13 I had had enough. Every bone in my body ached and I was big time nauseous. We pull over to get dinner, I take one whiff of Ben's fried shrimp and I hurled all over the Cracker Barrel bathroom. This led to a mini meltdown in the ladies restroom and all I wanted was Ben... I gathered myself together...cleaned up my mess...and went back to the table. Ben says, "Honey, you just need to get some rest. Don't think about anything else. I'll get us there." [Enter uncontrollable emotion].

Thankfully, my stomach cleared and I was able to help keep Ben awake for most of the ride. The events did not stop there. Kansas brewed up a big old storm for us, the Wizard of Oz kind, and it was all Ben could do to stay on the road.

After being up 23 hours....driving for 18...seeing the sun set in Kansas and rise in Colorado...hearing Ben ask "Do you think we'll ever leave Kansas?" (or variations) at least 10 times...and singing Steven Curtis Chapman's This is the Great Adventure, at the top of our lungs, we collapsed in bed at 5 o'clock, this morning....Just to be up at 9:30am.

This is crazy.

But you cannot deny God's hand...We walked into Rebekah's hospital room and she burst into tears. We've had a wonderful time getting to know her family and loving Rebekah through these many hours of labor. The highlight of my day, was when Rebekah's mom looked around the room and said, "I can't believe we're all sitting here...like family. This is so cool." I have never felt so honored...Rebekah's family has embraced us warmly.

It's been a long day for sure...Rebekah is only dialated to 4 and there's been some hiccups along the way. But God is moving! I haven't processed that in a few short hours (hopefully) I'll be holding my son for the first time...

We used to take this journey one day at a time. Right now...it's minute by minute.


Thank you for standing with us...