Tuesday, August 05, 2008

One


Well, this is it folks. The final day has come and gone. We went for our pre-admission appointment this morning and I am now all tagged and ready to go for the AM. I am supposed to just show up with Stephen and the camera and no extra stuff. They will scan me in and away we go! Our meeting with the nurses could not have been more relaxing. We had a bit of a tough salty nurse and a sugary sweet nurse so they balanced each other out. The anesthesiologist, Dr. Grey.. yes, Dr. Grey (no her first name was not Meredith) was also super calm and sweet. I had to sign consent forms for the girls and put my relationship to the "patients" down as well.... "Mom".. very odd and pretty exciting at the same time. We had the car seats inspected and approved outside and we headed home to attempt to be normal for the rest of the day.


At some point this afternoon, Stephen said he just felt strange.. like there was this elephant in the room and he suggested we have an ice pop and sit in the nursery and discuss. So we did. After talking about how strange we felt to be about to bring home two little girls tomorrow, I decided that now was as good a time as any to give Stephen a diaper changing tutorial. So one of the girls stuffed bunnies volunteered to be the guinea pig.



I think he did an excellent job and he received high marks from the bunny as well.

Tonight we went to dinner at NoFo and had shrimp and grits, mmmm. Now I have about an hour and a half left to get in some sort of snack that must last me until tomorrow afternoon. As strange as it all feels to be getting up tomorrow and heading to the hospital to meet our daughters for the first time, we are so ready for this. As ready as we could possibly be. We know it will be hard and crazy for quite some time but we are ready for hard and crazy. We have had 6 years and 8 months together to get ready for these little girls and we are ready.

Before I sign off, I received an email tonight from one of my best friends in New York. I was just starting to feel a little nervous about tomorrow and anxious about things to come and then there was this email in my inbox. I hope she does not mind that I am going to share this sweet note with the world at large but it was just the thing I needed to read tonight and I can't possibly duplicate the beautiful way it was written.

"Hi there!!!

How are you?? Ready Freddy? I've been thinking about you so much and how excited you and Stephen must be. Actually, I think about you every single morning (I'll tell you why in a minute) but this morning it was different and I knew I had to write . . .

Every morning as I sit in traffic on the West Side Highway, I watch the barges being pushed by those tough little tugboats, and I naturally think of you and how much you enjoy those little guys. In my mind, I race them up or down the river, and given rushhour traffic, they usually win. But they take the race very seriously - much more seriously than all of those silly cars on the highway. Those tugboats are in it to win - there's no two ways about it. Anyway, the "big", little tugs and I go through this ritual each morning and it makes me laugh and makes me think about you.

This morning, I crept down the West Side, anticipating my first tugboat sighting, and up ahead I was excited to see a giant barge. As I got closer, I saw the cutest (they don't like being called cute, but I can't resist), brightest, reddest, strongest little tugboat I've ever seen! I quickly jumped over to the right lane in order to get the best view. The little tug was pushing this giant barge right up the Hudson River! I was driving south and the tugboat was going north, so I knew I'd only get a few moment to see it. But before I could even laugh outloud about the ridiculous cuteness of the whole scene, I looked toward the back of the barge and saw a second tugboat!! It was IDENTICAL to the first one! It was bright red and just as strong as the first tugboat! Together they were pushing this big barge right up the Hudson with the ease of pushing a child on a swing. It was so amazing!!! And again, it made me think of you, and it made me think of your sweet little, strong little girls. It made me think about how they will grow up to support one another just like those two cute little tugboats. How they'll be able to move mountains (or barges) together.

Anyway, it really brightened my otherwise dull commute to the city, and best of all, it made me think about you and Stephen and your new little family.

I wish you the best of luck and know that everything will be just fine. Our prayers are with you."

Thank you, friend, for giving me that perfect glimpse of the the city when I needed it most.

And now.. I will bid you all goodnight (for some reason Blogger now has me stuck in italics..). Thank you everyone for your prayers.. we will see you on the other side.

1 comment:

Tracy said...

Precious, as I sit here at home waiting on "the phone call" from grampa Larry, that email from your friend brought tears of joy! So excited are WE!!!!