5 years ago today

Where was I five years ago today? I was supposed to be picking my parents up from Saskatoon airport as they arrived home from a trip to England for my cousin's wedding. Notice I said I was supposed to be there. I wasn't, at least not on time. Now for those of you who know me, you might say, well that isn't a surprise, but I had actually arrived in Saskatoon early to collect them. Where was I? No, not at Michaels... I was standing uninvited in a hospital room while one of my best friends was in labour with her third child. I had just stopped by to see how she was doing, and I was about to leave to go to the airport when the doctor came in and asked me to stand on the other side of the bed and hold her leg. I wasn't sure a person should argue with a doctor at work so I did as I was told. Over the next half hour I was witness to the most heartwrenching, painful, exhausting, beautiful, heartwarming miracle. I was there when my fourth goddaughter was born. She came out looking in my direction which made the whole experience much worse for her mother, but she was beautiful, and she cried, and she was pink and wonderful. After she was cleaned up and wrapped in a blanket, she was offered to her father to hold who told them to give her to me, how wonderful, I was the first person to hold this little being, a new person. How incredible, I think I was speechless and even too stunned to cry, I remember giving her a kiss and having a picture taken with her, and then I can't even remember who I handed her to. My next thought was to call the airport to tell Mum and Dad that I was on my way. I picked them up, Mum had suspected that was why I wasn't there, and the whole 1 1/2 hour ride home I talked about the experience, I kept saying "I'm so sorry I was late." finally Dad said, "Stop saying that, you aren't sorry" and he was right, I wasn't.

An incredibly exciting day, if I never have my own children, I will always have the memory of being there when a child was born. Wow!

On the lighter side, when I was scrambling for the airport phone number, the nurse said to my friend, "so your parents are flying in?" and my friend replied, "no, no my parents, hers." the nurse said, "oh, I thought you two were sisters" to which my friend's husband replied, "oh, we don't actually know her, we thought she was with you."

Happy fifth birthday Anna!!