We flew out of Chattanooga to New Bern on Monday, October 2, 2017. We got in our rental car at almost 10:00 at night that smelled like FEET and that had a horn that wouldn't alert any driver. We called it our toy car. :) We drove the toy car to Morehead City where we met Katie at a dive bar for some food since that was the only thing open. We ordered some appetizers but Katie declined. She even said the water tasted like sink water! Tasted great to me but then again I'm not the one pregnant this time!
We drove to our hotel room at Bask Hotel and it was newly renovated and gorgeous. I hate I forgot to take pictures of it but it used to be an assisted living of some kind so it was huge! We had a living room and full kitchen which of course we never used either one. The ultrasound was in the morning but sleep wouldn't come easy that night.
We met Katie, her husband Brian and her daughter Amelia at a seafood place on the water named Ruddy Ducks. Amelia was a bit shy but warmed up after we shared shrimp and fish with her. When we were finished eating, Dad took Amelia home for a nap and we all went to the beach for a bit before the ultrasound appointment.
The appointment was at 2:00 on Tuesday. We pulled in the parking lot and noticed that the address was 312. That wouldn't mean much to anyone but us. My dad died unexpectedly almost a year ago. He told me two days before his heart attack that we needed to use a surrogate because that was going to work. My parents have 312 in their address and my dad always referred to his house as 312. "Gotta head back to 312." "I like my chair in my house at 312." He was a home body and liked 312!!!! I love that the Lord gave us 312 on the day of our first ultrasound. It's like God gave me just a little bit of this child's Papa that day.
We go in and I start to get really nervous. I go back with Katie to get her vitals and the tears start to flow. The nurse asked me if I was ok and I just blurt out, "No, I'm afraid it's going to be dead." She reassures me that it won't be but she doesn't know that death has always been the case with ultrasounds for us. We all three go into the room and that's when we see it.
The baby.
Our baby.
With a heartbeat of 131.
But it wasn't as simple and wonderful as it sounds. Dr. Conrad explains everything, like here's the yolk sac, here's the baby.... and then she turned on the sound for the heartbeat. So then I start to panic. It sounded like Caleb's. It sounded too slow. So I yell out, "IS IT FAST ENOUGH????" through my sobs. Dr. Conrad said, "Yes. It's 131, which is perfect for this stage." So then I start bawling even worse. What started out as panic ended in tears of pure joy. Our baby was fine. The heartbeat was fast enough for 6 weeks 3 days. I cried and cried and possibly could have used my inhaler (again) and the doctor said, "If you're like this now how will you be at the birth?" I can't even imagine witnessing the birth. Is this really happening???? I started to feel my feet move just a bit for this dance!
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| Such a precious sight |
We spent the rest of our day and night meeting Katie's family. We were greeted by her three children with hugs and invitations to play. My three favorite moments were when Evelyn kissed me on the forehead, when Owen sat in my lap and told me he loved me and then this moment>>>
That night we went to Katie's dad's house where we got to meet him, his wife Gina, his step-daughter, and Brian's mom and dad. Gina is Italian so we got to eat real Italian homemade meatballs that were AMAZING! We sat around the table and had drinks (not Katie!) and talked and it was wonderful. I am so thankful that everyone is on board with this unconventional way of having this baby.
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| Me and Katie at her dad's house. Not the best picture of me because I had cried so much all day! |
We flew home Wednesday morning super early so that we could go spend the day with Brad's grandmother who was turning 92. We were so proud that we were able to hand her this for her birthday. The dance has officially begun!
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