Cole's Birth Day

It is birthday season in our house and with that comes a lot of memories of our kids "arrivals." Since every year on my birthday I get my birth day story from my grandma, I thought it might be fun to write each of my childrens' stories. For those of you who may not know, Jim missed our first wedding. We had a wedding date set for June 7th, 2003. All of the plans were made; dresses, flowers, and reception arranged. I spent months planning the perfect June wedding to my Prince Charming. I went to visit Jim in Germany in March, the last time I would see him before our wedding. There was talk of a possible invasion of Iraq but at that point, we didn't really know anything. Jim suggestied my parents purchase wedding insurace just in case. Thank goodness we did because the day my plane landed back in Dallas, Jim found out that he would be in the first wave of troops to go to Iraq and was to be leaving ASAP. So Jim left, the wedding was cancelled and suddenly my perfect dream wedding seamed like such a trivial thing in comparison. Jim was only there a short time; he arrived back in germany on July4th and into Dallas on July 8th. We were married in my parents backyard by his cousin on July 11th and headed back to Germany the next day. Jim was being assigned to a new unit and we wanted to look for our first home. And like every other military family who greets their loved one home from Iraq, we had baby fever. We became pregnant with Cole just a couple of weeks later but our timing could not have been worse. Here's how the conversation went:

Me: Guess what? I'm pregnant!
Jim: Guess what? My new unit is heading back to Iraq!

Whoops. And so began the craziness of my first pregnancy. I flew back to Dallas for a few months while Jim went to training. Then I headed back to Germany to be with him before he had to deploy. We had to make the decision whether I would have the baby in Germany or back in Dallas. The problem was, if I wanted to get back to Dallas, I had to fly back in January and miss time with Jim. I opted to stay in Germany so that I could see Jim off. My mom came over to help me just a few weeks later. We headed out to Wurzberg, Germany about a week before the due date so that we could be close to the hospital. On April 10, 2004, around 1:00 am, I went inot labor. I'm not sure how many times my mother called Sgt. Davis trying to get a message to Jim. Thirteen excruciating hours later, my baby boy was born. Still no word from Jim. God definately had his hand in that day. Little did I know that Jim was involved in a battle that had I been at home watching the news, would have had me worried sick. I was blissfully ignorant and busy having my first child. When Jim returned to the base that night, he went straight to the phones to call me as I was due to have a baby any day now. He got no answer so decided to call the hospital just in case. The nurse told him that I was in fact there, and that he had a son. She put him through to my room. I don't know if have have EVER been so excited to talk to one another. Jim passed cigars around to all of his friends that night and they celebrated becoming a father. As for my mom and I, we spent the next three days watching our precious little angel sleep and loving every minute of it. It is hard to believe that five years ago, a baby boy was born ; forever changing the world, forever changing us.