My Story - 30 Years Ago

Robert asked in his post, what were you doing 30 years ago today?

30 years ago today, I was oh not so patiently waiting for my senior year in high school to come to an end...then it was off to Basic Training...at times it seems so long ago, but at other times it feels as it was only yesterday. Funny how the mind plays tricks on us like that, especially when the memory is of one to which we are so close.

I think of Robert and his family often and I hope everyone of them are doing well. If you live in his neck of the woods, I implore you to support Robert in his current endeavor to secure a spot in the Legislature, for Robert is the kind of man who will make a difference.

Robert’s story of Mike's birth sounds so familiar to me, as it is very similar to the flurry of activity that surrounded the birth of son#2 (S2). S2 was late, two-weeks late and although everything seemed fine, we just felt that we shouldn't be waiting any longer. On December 26, 1999 we finally went to the hospital in labor, and we had decided that we weren't leaving there without our child (we had made a decision to not learn the sex of the baby with both boys). Finally, the time came and our second son was on his way out...but something wasn't right. The umbilical cord had wrapped around his neck and with every push, it was choking him, to death. Labor it seems had become a fight for survival for our little one. After what seemed like hours, but was really only an hour at most, he was delivered, and placed on his mother’s chest, but still something was wrong. It was then that we saw the face on our mid-wife change from one of serious business to out-right fear.

Rub his chest…pinch his toes…nothing was working he just wasn't breathing enough... Then he was gone, ripped off her chest and out of her arms and out of the room. A quick hesitant look at each other and her eyes told me all I needed to know - go after them and don't come back without him!

We were lucky, the local hospital was a big one, and a year earlier they had opened up their own Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and yes, as Robert noted they do say it - Nick U, across the hall from the Labor and Delivery Suites. Through the glass I saw him...tiny, with more tubes coming out of him than you could think possible. The delivery process and umbilical cord issue had caused him to instinctively try to gasp for breath, unfortunately he was still in amniotic fluid at the time and he swallowed a fair amount of fluid as well as meconium too - the pressure change caused his right lung to collapse.

Two-weeks later we were able to hold him for the first time; today he is a healthy 6th Grader and the Scribe for his Scout Troop.

Like Robert I am blessed by my children, they are my heroes for both of them have overcome so much and still every day they get up and do it all again. I don't know if I would have had the strength to do what they do but I suppose, as people tell me that they are just like me, that somewhere I have the strength that they do.

God bless you Robert, drive safely and give our hellos to Mike and to your Dad O, they are who they are, because of you just as you are who you are because of them. Hold onto your Memories and keep making more, for to forget debases us as humans and we have more value than that for our purpose comes from an authority higher than us all.

Never forget that even in the darkest of times we can find the path God wants us to follow if we believe in Romans 8-25 and follow the example of Isaiah and simply reply, "Send me."

[Ed Note: This is my story, ask my wife and the details may vary slightly, but I am a firm believe in remembering the story in the manner to which it benefits you the most. Besides I'm a historian by training I can't be expected to be so exact with the facts can I? lol)