7 years ago tonight

Seven years ago tonight we had dinner at Skips Dinner and took a trip to Home Depot, as a family of 2. Little did we know that tomorrow we would celebrate the birth of our first baby girl.

For those of you who don't know the story of EGB, I'll give you the story.

• Rob and I planned to be married 5 years before having children. We married in July 2000. (here's an update....go by God's plan, not yours). I had a cold in December 2000 and it lasted until February 2001. When I went to the doctor to see what was wrong with me I left with a completely different diagnosis than what I expected. The doctor did blood work and came in and asked if I could be pregnant. I told him I didn't think so, I had no reason to think I was. Then he said, No, you are, the blood test shows it. Needless to say the concern of the cold/sinus problem was the furthest thing from my mind. So the first week of February we thought we'd be parents in October....

• Valentine's Day we went to the night clinic b/c I was in a great deal of pain, they wouldn't see me and sent us to the ER. While at the ER I went from being approximately 4 weeks pregnant to 6-8 weeks to 10-12 weeks. Amazing.... How could it be?

• Two weeks later we had our first ultrasound to make sure everything was ok. R had to work, and since we were expecting to see a peanut, mom went with me. Imagine our surprise to see a perfect baby on the monitor. When I asked if the tech could tell if it was a boy or girl she said yes and wrote it down and sealed it, so that Rob and I could decide if we wanted to know before the baby was born. So in 3 weeks we went from being 4 weeks to 24 weeks pregnant.

• By the time we could comprehend we were going to be parents, it was time for EGB to arrive.

• How did she get her name? All of my life I have known that I would name my little girl after my Mamaw Emma Lillian. Aunt Julie's grandmother was also Lillian, so knowing that if they have a little girl her name would be Lilly, we chose Emma. Rob had been calling her Grace since about a week after he opened the envelope to reveal we were having a girl. He even bought her the TY bunny named Grace.

In review our baby that was suppose to be born October 21, was born on Sat. June 16, 01. Full term. To welcome her to this world her Mamaw was in the room with us and in the waiting room/hall: Papaw Olen, Papaw Kemp, Mamaw Emma, Papaw Bill, Grandmother, Aunt Janice, Cousin Christy, Nana. There were even people flying as fast as they could to get to her side all the way from Spain!