# 471 - A Baby to Love!

On September 1st of the year 2013, I became a grandma! Baby Coraline came into the world as my daughter, Heather, gave birth, completely natural. In fact, she was so relaxed during her labor that she didn't arrive to the hospital until she was dilated to 9cm, which is TOO CLOSE to a baby being born!

Heather actually thought she might deliver in the car on the way to Fort Worth. But, she did it. She delivered her baby natural, just as I delivered both of my daughters, so I have tremendous appreciation and respect for what she endured.

My daughter and my grand-daughter.

Heather was my first baby. To see my first baby with her first baby has been a joy that the world could not prepare me to experience. I liken the experience to having your first baby, you can't really imagine it, until it happens.

Heather kissing her baby and me kissing my baby.

Henry is an awesome dad, as we knew he would be. Still, those who do right often need encouragement to keep doing the same, so I took a moment to thank these kiddos for making us grandparents, but most of all, I thanked them for being mature, good-hearted and responsible so that us grand-parents can thoroughly enjoy our position.

 

We are truly proud of them. More than that, our son-in-law is the kind of man who would protect his wife and daughter with his own life. It feels wonderful that he's well-equipped with ample experience to handle most situations, and he will be impacted by his baby girl to become an even more wonderful man of strength and character. 

 

There's no doubt, Henry is the kind of son-in-law most of us dream of having for our daughters We are blessed to have him as the father of our grand-daughter, Coraline.

 

 

As for us getting meet our grand-daughter...as soon as my husband could get a day off, we drove the four hours to see the new addition to our family. To be honest, the two of us were a nervous wreck. These kinds of things don't happen very often in our family.

 

So, our grand-daughter was two days old when we met her. And she stole our hearts. Seeing our grand-daughter made us experience one of the sweetest moments that two people can share, next to having a child of their own...to become grandparents together has confirmed that our hard work and determination through these years has paid off.

 

 

We held baby Coraline and both of us felt the burdens of the world fall from our shoulders. I'm not kidding. During the months our daughter was pregnant, we held such tension as only worry-warts such as ourselves will do because we held great concern for our daughter's health.

 

We wanted everything to go well for our child, so it felt like standing on pins and needles through her pregnancy, but we didn't want her to know the depth of our never-ending concern. Having too much physical distance between our residences definitely compounded our agony.

 

The Houston area to the Fort Worth area is a hefty distance; it wasn't easy to live so far away that we could not help our daughter on a regular basis, and I think the distance between us brought back the hard side of memories from our own experience with living in Germany for three years, so far from our family, during the birth of our first child. I guess that would be considered legit "separation anxiety."

 

I had to keep reminding myself that Heather lives far away, but she's still in the same country. Breathe.

 

 

When we arrived to meet Coraline, we were delighted to see our youngest daughter mesmerized by her tiny niece. Stefie has fallen in love with Coraline. I think Stefie might be one of the most awesome aunts to grace our planet. No kidding.

 

 

Stefie's boyfriend, Brice, is smitten with baby Cora-Lou. Her daddy calls her "Cora-Lou" and it is a contagious, precious nickname.

 

 

We stayed in a hotel located close to our kids' house. We went on a big grocery shopping trip, then spent the next two days preparing meals for the new parents of our grand-baby.

 

Sgt. Dave and I cooked their first meal at home with their baby, and the next day in town, Sgt. Dave kept on cooking whatever his daughter wanted to eat:

 

Breaded, Seasoned sauteed chicken in creamy mushroom sauce

Rice Pilaf

Broccoli and Cheese

Three-Cheese-Garlic Bruschetta

Tuna Salad

Chicken Salad

 



In addition to getting to cook for my daughter, I went into action to help the new mommy catch a break by dusting the living room from top to bottom, vacuuming nooks and crannies, then I tackled the baseboards, which are my specialty. Also, I was able to work on the nursery a tiny bit and to do the floor of the guest room. Heather's house looked great, but I was happy to help in a small way to hold back the dust-bunnies for another day.

I wanted to keep going to help, but the baby needed a grandma to hold her and to stare at her precious little features for a few hours while the mommy got some much needed sleep and the daddy took care of business.

I can't imagine the pure joy that comes from having multiple grand-children! Yes, I was truly meant to be a grandma.

During our second day with our little jewel, we "mature" grand-parents began our playful, yet serious whining about which one should be holding the baby.

"It's MY turn!"
"Hey, I've only held her for TWO hours straight, back off!"
This is the truth.
"No, you have to go eat your food that's waiting on that plate over there and getting cold."
Food?
"No, I have no need for food any more."

After all those light kisses of blessings we gave Coraline from us, we laughed about what we must look like, from Coraline's perspective. Perhaps in her eyes we appear to look something like this...

Love is a beautiful thing.