Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Casey is 1 week old

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Casey was born on Tuesday May 29, 2007 around 10 pm. That is one week ago from this evening, so we celebrated by going out to eat at Hamilton's Restaurant for Tuesday Buck-a-Taco night. We usually go to Taco night at Hamiliton's every Tuesday. In fact, we were at Hamiliton's last week on Tuesday. We had finished eating, Cole was running around playing tag or some other game with all the other children on loose in the Hamilton's courtyard, and Maria had gone off to "book-group" at someone's house, when my cell phone rang (at 7:20pm).
The cell phone is a new technology for me on Saipan. I've had cell phones when I've lived in other places, but Maria and I had refused to get cell phones for the first three years on this tiny island, opting instead to just drive around and and look for each other's car if we really needed to find one another. But this whole pending adoption, including arranging prenatal check-ups, and coordinating car pooling of other kids home from school neccesitated in giving up the "search and find" method of communication for a more immediate form. We've only had the phones for a couple of weeks, so there are very people that have my number, and I rarely get calls, so I was a little startled when the phone rang.
The caller ID indicated that it was the birth mother! Her boyfriend was on the other end of the line and sounded like he was in a hurry. He just told me, "We are on our way to the hospital, see you there." We had been to a prenatal appointment earlier in the day, and knew that today might be the day, but it was still somewhat of a shock to hear those words: "We are on our way to the hospital." Maria and I had a contingency plan for this event. Maria and Mary, our housekeeper and friend to the birth mother, would go to the hospital for the birth while I stayed home with Cole. I immediately phoned Maria so she could go home and get Mary. The phone rang and rang. No answer. I tried again, figuring that maybe she was still enroute driving to "book-group" and could not pick up the phone. Still no answer. I tried a third time. No answer. What should I do? Luckily, I had overheard her at dinner telling someone where "book-group" was going to be held tonight.
I rounded up Cole, and we got in the Jeep. I phoned Mary to let her know that Cole and I were on our way to pick her up to go to the hospital, so get ready. I also asked Mary to try to call Maria while Cole and I were driving home. Cole and I arrived at home 10 minutes later, loaded up Mary, and headed off in search of Maria. We arrived at the "book-group" hostess's house 10 minutes later. I knocked, walked in and called to Maria. She asked if it was time to go to the hospital and when I said yes, she jumped up from her chair and rushed out of the house without even saying goodbye to the other group members. All four of us went to the hospital, since we were so close anyway.
We arrived by 8pm, which is not bad timing considering we had regressed back to the "search and find" method of communication. (By the way, Maria had left her cell phone in the car). Cole and I stayed for a few minutes to make sure everything was going allright, then we went home and had ice cream and went to bed. Maria called about 10pm that night letting us know that the baby had been born and was healthy and crying. Those are the events from last Tuesday night as I recall them. Maybe Maria will post later her version of our trip to the hospital. ~~Derek
To see some photos of Casey, check out our Google/Picasa website: http://picasaweb.google.com/bwana.derek/CaseyWayneChambers

1 comment:

Quinn said...

Good blog, keep it coming! I love hearing about the simple life on Saipan and the numerous adventures of the Chambers' Family.

Quinn