8-8-2009. The scariest day of my life.

I went to bed the night before looking forward to the Back 2 School Bash the next day. It had become one of the signature community events Suncoast Worship Center put on every year.

At 2:30am I was awakened by my wife Lindsey who was great with child. Anyone who has been on a trip with me knows that if I am awakened out of a deep sleep, I wake up violently. I shot up out of bed, worried that I had overslept and was going to be late for the Back 2 School Bash. “We’ve got to go to the hospital. The baby is coming.” is what Lindsey said. What’s funny is that I was SO out of it, that I was actually relieved that I hadn’t overslept for the event.

Back to that in a minute, first let me give some backstory.

With our first three kids, the deliveries were scheduled. No surprises. Show up on this day, you will have a baby before day’s end. Cadia was different. We found out early into the pregnancy that this one was different. I won’t go into details, but Lindsey was having a high risk pregnancy. We had to go to specialty doctors offices, many different ultrasounds, etc. The biggest change was that this was going to be a c-section. This was scary. Lindsey is very much against c-sections unless the baby’s life is in danger. Needles to say, there lives could’ve been at risk with a natural delivery, and we were on edge anyway since this was all new to us. (I was a wreck actually)

The Doc said he wanted to schedule a delivery at a certain time period. We felt that it was waiting too long. She was at full term, and we wanted Cadia to be delivered on Friday. But, HE went to medical school and I did not, so we scheduled the C-section for late the next week.

Because of the risk involved, he gave us warning signs. If we saw any of these particular signs we were to rush to the hospital immediately.

Back where we left off…

One of those warning signs had taken place in the middle of the night. So, I went from being relieved to being in semi-panic mode. We called parents, and Pastor Phillip to let them know what was going on. SO thankful that Courtney (Willimas) Arnold came over to stay with the kids until my family could get there.

We rushed to the hospital where they confirmed that Cadia was ready and she as coming now. They had to prep the room for a c-section before she came on her own. Shift change happened at the hospital, and we were nervous as to what was going to happen next. I had been praying pretty much all throughout the night. It was then that the next shift nurse walked into the room. It was an angel sent from God Himself. A familiar face came into the room with God’s countenance all over her. It was Petal Williams. (Her daughters had been in my youth group at SWC). She reassured us that everything was going to be alright. Not much longer after that, Lindsey was wheeled into the OR for delivery when Maria Medina (another nurse, and family friend) showed up to comfort Lindsey.

30 minutes later we were blessed to look at Cadia for the first time.

I was filled with joy as my wife and my child were both safe and healthy.

That was 2 years ago today. It’s hard to believe it was that long ago. She should still be this size. But here’s a few pics of the last 2 years.

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