Papa's Heart

Our days/nites all run together since Halle arrived.  So this feels like it happened today to me, but it was yesterday in real time... Halle was asleep and I'd gone to get some rest but as I got into bed a wave of disbelief and joy came and I called Chad in... we sat and talked about how unbelievable she feels and that's when he read to me what he'd written to Halle during one of his "shifts" the nite prior.  His plan to keep an email journal of sorts, writing to her at various milestones and then she will read them when she is older.

I watched him as he read his first entry to her and cried tears of amazement at how God has moved in our lives, not just since 1.9.15, but how I can look back and see him faithful.   It reminds me of this lyric from a song I listened to this a lot during the last trimester, "I will look back and see that you are faithful, I look ahead believing you are able."

I asked Chad if he'd care if I shared his first "letter" to Halle 
w/ you... and he said I could so here it is

January 9th, 2015...  

Hi Halle,

Today is January 14, 2015…5 days after God gave us the sweetest gift!  I decided I was going to open this email account for you and along the way share special memories, tell you how happy I am to be your Papa, and allow you to see some of my heart.

On January 9, 2015, we welcomed Halle June Crane to the world.  It was a rather strange day.  I had been interviewing for a job I really wanted and found out around 5:00 p.m. that I didn’t get the job.  I remember your mom crying after I told her the news (not sure it was really hurt tears but rather tears of me being let down after a lot of heart went into trying to land the job).  We would’ve been moving to Chicago had it happened.  Anyway, lets fast forward - I asked your Mom if she wanted to go get dinner and we settled on a new pizza place close to the house.  We proceeded to have dinner but the further we got into the night the more frustrated I became about not getting the job at Ridgemoor Country Club.  A good friend of mine from high school, Amy Nichols, and her husband were having dinner and we talked to them towards the end of dinner and spoke of the excitement of being almost 37 weeks pregnant and anticipating if God was going to give us a little girl or a little boy.  Little did we know we were about to find out.  

Your mom and I got home around 8:15 p.m. from dinner and I had retreated to the basement and she did her get ready for bed, feet in the tub, listen to some worship music routine.  I was trading text messages (maybe they still do this) with some friends sharing my disappointment about not getting the job and had the TV on in the background as a distraction.  At around 9:45 your mom called me and asked me to come up stairs.  She thinks her water may have broken but called the doctor and they said to monitor it and passed it off as no big deal.  I decided I should stay up with her at this point thinking something may have been wrong.  I did some research on the internet (maybe they still do this) and was specifically finding out about contractions.   

Sure enough your mom was having contractions and as they got to a point we learned at our birthing class to do something we packed up some bags and headed to the hospital.  We arrived at the emergency entrance because it was after hours and mom’s contractions were getting closer and more intense.  The lady at the registration area said, “You’re having this baby today,” and that was the first time it got super real to me.  It’s now 11:00 p.m. about 8 minutes after we got to the hospital and they’ve moved us to the “labor holding” room where mom is to get ready for labor.   

We later found out the nurses were having a slow night and they anticipated you joining us around 7-10:00 a.m. the next morning….you had other plans.  Quickly we were moved to the labor room and your mom was doing her best to handle the pains of the contraction, the uncertainty of how this was going to happen, and wanted a timeline from the nurses on when you were coming.  The one detail that made things a bit chaotic for us was the doctor had still not made it to the hospital.  The main nurse grabbed your mom’s hand and said, “You are doing great, if you wanna have this baby we don’t need to wait to for the doctor, the baby is right there and it’s only going to take a few pushes.” 

 From there your mom had a couple more contractions and with each one a few deep breaths and pushes.  At 11:29 p.m. a little baby came out and the nurses held you and looked at us saying, “You don’t know what you were having do you?” “It’s a baby girl!”  Mom looked right up at me and said, “We did it C, A BABY GIRL!”  We both wanted a little girl and that’s exactly what God blessed us with.  Halle June Crane!! 

There is so much more I am going to share with you but I wanted to start by sharing the night you were born….oh by the way Papa would wanna lose the Ridgemoor job over and over and over for the blessing of you!  Attached is a pic I sent to everyone I knew telling them of your arrival.

Love you!

Papa

Halle was 6 lb - 10 oz and 18.5 in. long.  If you have the time, take a listen to this song and worship the Giver of Life w/ me.  To all reading who have prayed for this gift for us, I've looked at her face more than once this past week and been reminded she is an accumulation of the faith of many and the goodness of a Living God.

Jesus I Come - Elevation Worship