amazing maisie | maisie's birth story

As headed into the end of last week, we had been waiting for a phone call to tell us that Maisie's birthmother was in labor for almost two weeks.  One thing we had been praying for was that she would go into labor at a time such that we could catch a flight immediately in order to be there as soon as possible after Maisie's birth.  But with 2 flights ahead of us, about 8 hours total travel time, and flights only leaving 6am-6pm, we knew it might not happen.  I really desired to be there for Maisie's birth but knew that was very unlikely.

As last week was coming to an end, we were preparing to leave Easter Sunday morning since Maisie's birthmom, now overdue, would be induced on Monday.  As it was getting closer, we were happy because now we would definitely be there for Maisie's birth and be able to receive her immediately after birth--our desire and her birthmother's desire.

On Good Friday we went to our church's Good Friday service, and our pastor had literally just finished ending the service when Braden's phone buzzed with a phone call.  My friend Kendra, who was sitting behind me was in the midst of saying congratulations to me about Maisie's upcoming birth as I heard Braden say, "It's the social worker!" The birthmother, who had been 4 cm dilated for nearly two weeks was on her way to the hospital in labor.  We quickly left to go to my parents', where we had a last minute surprise cake awaiting my mom, because it was her birthday.  With all the uncertainty surrounding Maisie's birth and us being gone, we were unprepared for her birthday.  We really thought we would be gone getting Maisie and were planning on celebrating upon our return.

While we were so excited that the birthmother was in labor and excited that Maisie would be born on my mom's birthday, it was just killing us that we couldn't fly out until 6am the next morning.  We wouldn't be there until she was probably about 12 hours old at best.  I knew the nurses would care for her and she would be fine, but still, nurses aren't Mommy.  My mom's cake got wolfed down as we talked about where to leave the kids, switched our flight to 6am, and shored up all the necessary last minute plans.

We said goodbye to Maddie and Caleb and left them at my parents' and Braden and I went home and finished packing. About an hour later Shawn and her kids, who had just come into town for Easter weekend, stopped by so we could say a quick 'hi' and 'bye'. Meanwhile we heard from Kim, the social worker, that the birthmother might not be in labor, and we were shocked!  At 1:30am we heard from Kim that she had been sent home 5 cm dilated and not in labor!  We were so surprised, as was Kim.  But we were also relieved because it meant we might actually make it for Maisie's birth, or at least shortly thereafter.

At 3:30am we got up to catch our 6:00am flight out.  (Yep, we got an hour and half of sleep that night.)  We boarded our plane and taxied 3 times before we finally took off.  A 'door ajar' light kept coming on right as the pilot prepared to take off, so the doors had to be checked twice and then finally the light was fixed.  By that point we knew we had missed our connecting flight.

We landed and raced to the gate just in case, but we had definitely missed our flight.  It was about 9am and they bumped us automatically to a 1pm flight, but we didn't want to wait around that long.  The birthmother was still not in labor but we just wanted to get there!  So we asked what they could do and they offered to switch us to another airline. Yay!  So we pretty much boarded right away and took off on our second leg.  We were pretty relieved knowing we'd be there for Maisie's birth, whether it was later that day, Sunday, or not until her induction Monday.  

We landed and of course flipped on our phones right away to check for messages.  Braden had two texts: one to say that the birthmother had gone into labor and was at the hospital, the second (which had been sent about 20 minutes previous) to say that she was 8cm!  We were a bit stunned and so excited!

We went to get our baggage, only to find it hadn't made our flight. The next hour or so was like a movie...filling out baggage claims, getting our rental car, grabbing lunch while getting text updates...she's still at 8cm, she's at 9cm.  We had a 20 minute drive to the hospital from the airport. About 2 blocks from the hospital we got the text: She's pushing!  We drove up to the hospital, parked, jumped out of the car, and ran into the hospital to meet Kim, who told us Maisie had just been born.  Kim took us up to the nursery and there was Maisie!!

Maisie was born, the nurses wheeled her straight out of the birthmother's room to the nursery, and we walked in.  She was literally just 4 or 5 minutes old.  Had we been there waiting for hours, we wouldn't have seen her any sooner.  It was unbelieveable!!

I started bawling.  Here was the little girl we had been waiting for, working for, and praying for.  There was our tiny answer to many prayers.  And boy was she tiny!  We watched all her vitals get taken, we watched her get weighed and all that fun stuff.  And then we got to hold her and give her her first bottle.  It was surreal and amazing!  We just couldn't believe we had made it there for her birth. One thing I had been praying during the two weeks prior to her birth was that I would see God's hand clearly on our trip and on this adoption.  I didn't know what that would look like. But I saw the unbelieveably perfect timing--despite delays, missed flights and lost baggage--as God answering that prayer very clearly.