Ruby turns 1

Ruby turned 1 on August 12th. It is hard to believe that a year has passed so quickly. We celebrated early while we were in Colorado so that some family could be there. We chose a “berry” theme because it was her “Berry First Birthday.“ We had pink cupcakes decorated with strawberries and several cousins to help eat them. On her actual birthday, we celebrated with our second family of good friends from church. Among those dear friends, was Sonia Needs, who helped deliver Ruby and is about to give birth to her own third child.
One Year Ago ……It was a Tuesday afternoon. I remember so clearly going to a tea party with my friend Sonia. Later that night we had a BBQ with other full time campus staff and I was having very mild contractions. We got home and about 9:00pm they were pretty regular. We put the kids to bed, and about 11:30, we headed to the hospital. I labored on my own for a couple hours. About 1:30 we had the midwife Molly break my water and 20 intensely painful minutes later she was born. We did not know the sex ahead of time and I remember being in shock for about 24 hours that she was a girl. I just kept saying, “I can’t believe it’s a girl. J, can you believe we have a daughter – that sounds so weird.’’ I remember all three boys parading into the hospital room with a small bouquet of flowers for me, and a bag of bean burritos from Taco Bell for dad. They were so excited to meet and hold their new baby sister. We were completely unprepared for a little girl so we did not have a name picked out. We left the hospital early, baby nameless. The next morning on our way to her 24 check-up, we decided on Ruby Brooke. She has been our little jewel ever since!!!