Happy Birthday, Polar Bear Cub

On this June 6th, 2012, D-day stands for "Delivery Day". The Polar Bear had a baby. And unlike polar bears in the wild I promise not to eat him. His grandmas, however, have not made this promise, but have spoken rather flippantly about their desire to "eat him up" based on his level of cuteness. For the cub's sake, I hope his cuteness level decreases, otherwise we could have a mess on our hands. This little guy has been on our hearts and minds for a long time. You can read a little more about the heavenly heralding of this promised offspring by clicking here, but right now I would like to tell you about my day.

The alarm woke me at the godly hour of 7:00am. I gently nudged my sleeping wife next to me, and told her the time, and we both began to rouse as we tend to rouse, stretching, tooting, snorting, yawning and sneezing. I snorted, yawned and sneezed. She stretched and tooted.

The bed we slept in was 160 some odd miles away from the bed we normally sleep in, because we are in Charlottesville, VA awaiting the birth of the baby we are adopting. Inches from Jenny's side of the bed Nathan is sleeping undisturbed by our routine, which is all well and good, because he didn't go to bed last night until 11:45pm.

By 7:38am all three of us are in the elevator on our way down to a Hampton Inn catered Continental breakfast, Belgium waffles, doughnuts, Danishes, hot cereal, cold cereal, yogurt, turkey sausage, four different types of juices, and powdered eggs. mmmmm...all except the powdered eggs.

We gobbled breakfast up along with the rest of our party which consisted of Jenny's parents, Gary and Cindy, and my dear mother, Mom.

Promptly at 8:06am we hailed a shuttle to the hospital, trudged up to the eighth floor via elevator, and got settled in the waiting room just outside the pregnant lady wing of the University of Virginia Medical Center.

Jenny immediately went to go meet the birth mom to see what she could find out, and then we waited for the scheduled C-section at 9:00am.

Nathan finished waking up, I started building some contact lists and began composing the first announcement, Mom chatted, Gary got situated, Cindy drank coffee, Jenny liaised, and the birth mom started getting thirsty. Suddenly, Jenny marched into the waiting room and said that there was an emergency C-section that had to go ahead of us, but our turn shouldn't be any later than 11:00am...Then we waited for the scheduled C-section at 11:00am.

Nathan played army men, I Skyped my sister and her kids, Mom drank coffee, Gary slept, Cindy chatted, Jenny liaised, and the birth mom started getting hungry.

11:00am rolled around and the word was that there were more complications than they expected with this emergency C-section, so it wasn't going to be until about 1:00pm so we should get lunch. So we got lunch and Nathan ate hotdogs in the cafeteria with his grandmothers, I ate a piece of amazing pepperoni pizza in the waiting room, Gary ate a sandwich of some sort while changing the world one email at a time on his laptop, Mom ate a salad, Cindy ate a salad, Jenny ate a nutragrain bar, and the birth mom ate nothing... then we waited for our scheduled C-section at 1-ish.

Nathan watched the Chipmunks movie, I sent some emails and some text messages, Mom explored the eighth floor, Gary surfed the Internet, Cindy looked for divine encounters, and Jenny liaised.

At 2:00 pm. There was a report of numbness on the birth mother's left side, so another emergency C-section passed us on the inside of turn four with only one lap to go. The doctors did a neurological exam which came back negative, and the numbness receded. We were a go after this last C-section...so we waited for our scheduled C-section at 4:30pm. Nathan drank coffee, I played with Legos, Mom played army men, Gary chatted, Cindy began studying liaising, Jenny became the Jedi Master liaison, and the birth mom starved.

At 4:09pm I got a text, or rather 3 texts from Jenny, "It is time. I will keep u posyed." Next text, "postef" and then finally "posted".

Nathan exploded, I calmed him down, Mom gathered, Gary sent some announcements, Cindy liaised, Jenny held the earth together, and the birth mom forgot she was starving.

At 4:45pm, Nathan, I, Mom, Cindy, and Gary are all standing outside a giant door waiting for some news from someone while Jenny and the birth mom are doing their thing.

At 5:16pm the door opens, and a nurse comes out, "He's been born..." And I didn't hear the rest. Jaws drop, tears emerge, heads spin, smiles stretch, legs jump, toes curl, phones come out, and texts fly.

At 5:27pm another nurse comes out wheeling a cart with a newborn baby inside...



Jenny came out a few minutes later and told us all the gruesome details. Then we all waited for a chance to hold him...


That was pretty much how my day went today.