Adelia's Birth Story

Adelia Faith was born Thursday, March 6^th at 1:29 am.  She weighed 8 lbs 5 ounces and was 19 inches long with a head of dark brown hair. It’s been a whirlwind since we first found out we were expecting her and so much did not go “according to plan”.  Yet through it all, it is easy to see how God had an ultimate plan and knew what He was doing.

We found out we were expecting while we were still in Branson, MO.  I was working an overnight weekend job and Chad was working at two different places.  Life was changing quickly for us.  The main job I had been working with Make Believers was coming to an end, and we had hit several walls in Chad continuing his education at Drury.  With those situations in our mind and the increasing difficulty to see either of our families, we began praying about moving back to the East Coast.  After talking with our families and some close friends, we decided to head to North Carolina.  Chad’s twin was already here and his parents were in the processing of moving to North Carolina as well.  Moving cross country is definitely not my favorite thing but we are so glad to be close to some of our family again.

One thing that we had to pray through when deciding on North Carolina is we would not have the option of having a home birth like we did with Ezekiel.  While it is technically legal in the state, the laws are so strict that it is nearly impossible to find a midwife who will do one.  We were extremely blessed to find a group of midwives in our area (they are pretty scarce in the state) who worked with the local hospital.  I fell in love with the first midwife we met with and so much of my anxiousness about having to have a hospital birth was put to rest.  I met with the second midwife and while I liked her, I immediately began praying that we would have the first one for our actual birth.

While I would have never chosen a hospital birth, God again knew what He was doing.  Towards the end of the pregnancy, there was some concern as the baby wasn’t growing like she should be. My midwife had me come in for another ultra sound and we found out that there was very little amniotic fluid left.  We then talked through our options and decided that it was best to go ahead and induced the labor (I was already 40 weeks and 3 days at this point).  So we went out to lunch, came home and gave Ezekiel a big hug and headed into the hospital to have our baby.  It was interesting arriving without actually being in labor but it gave us a chance to get through all of the paper work.  The labor went well despite having to have an IV and being hooked up to monitors the entire time (something I had planned on declining).  The hospital is very friendly towards natural births and had it so everything was mobile and shower/tub friendly.  We were blessed with a wonderful team of nurses that I can’t say enough great things about.  My prayers were also answered in being able to have the midwife that I wanted.  Chad described her best in saying, “It was like having a good friend, that was also a doctor, there for the birth.”  She was wonderful throughout the whole process.  Adelia did great throughout the labor.  There was a lot of concern between the low fluids and having to be induced that it would put too much stress on her, but her heartbeat never wavered once.  When she was born, we found that her cord was tied in a really tight knot which is most likely the cause of the low fluids.  When my water actually broke towards the end, the nurse questioned the midwife several times about it because there was so little fluid.  In the end, Adelia came out crying and wanting to nurse almost immediately.  Let me tell you, this girl knows how to eat. =)  Again, while being in the hospital was not my first choice, it was the best choice for our little girl.  I am thankful for the technology that alerted us to the fact that everything was not right towards the end.  I also had a couple of complications after the birth that again, we were thankful to be already at the hospital and have the medications necessary to take care of them.

After everything was done, we were taken to our recovery room and got some much needed sleep.  Ezekiel was able to come by later that day to meet his new little sister.  He wasn’t quite so sure about her at first (and quickly got distracted by all of the buttons he could press) but he is very attentive to her now.  He loves talking to her, giving her kisses, holding her, and makes sure to tell us the moment she starts crying.

And there it is…our birth story and the newest addition to our family.

Adelia Faith

For those of you who have asked, here is a little more about how we decided on Adelia’s name.  I started writing her birth story as well but the post seemed too long.  I’ll post it next for those who are interested.

Adelia Faith was the first name that Chad and I ever decided on.  It was a name that Chad had always liked, and I loved it upon hearing it. Adelia has a couple different meanings depending on where you look but when we think about it, we think of the Adelia flower. Chad enjoys referring to her as his “little flower”.  Faith is my grandma’s first name and I have always wanted to name one of my girls after her.

My grandma Faith has always been a special person in my life.  While I grew up on the opposite coast as her, I have very fond memories of her visits: walking to our neighborhood 7-Eleven for slurpies, spending time at the beach with our cousins, and playing a full game of monopoly (she was just about the only person I could get to play all the way with me).  I did have the blessing of living in the same state with her for a little bit when she moved to California but that was short lived as I headed to the East Coast after getting married. 

My grandma has always been a wonderful encourager.  I used to (and still do) love writing my grandma as a little girl and couldn’t wait to receive a letter back.  She always seems to have a way with words.  Recently, she lost her last living sibling.  My mom passed along a wonderful tribute my grandma had written about him and given him several years ago.  It brings me to tears thinking how sweet it is that she didn’t wait till after he had gone to write this, and that her brother was blessed enough to read it.  How I wish that I would learn to take more time to let those around me know how blessed I am by them.

One of my favorite things about her is she embraces life as it comes.  Growing old can be a difficult thing but she has done it with so much grace.  After living in Pennsylvania for most of her life, she moved to the west coast at over 80 years of age.  She quickly got involved in the local senior center, made quite a few friends, and took up the Ukulele.  She got involved in some different aerobic classes and has stayed active as much a she can.  I pray that our little Adelia will inherit some of these wonderful attributes from her great grandma and I am excited that she will soon be able to meet her name sake.  As we have already learned in how Adelia entered our world, so much of life is out of our control.  What we can control is our perspective and learning to take life one day at a time living in the grace of God.

And that brings us to our prayer for miss Adelia Faith: that she will learn to grow and blossom into the woman God has made her, that she will learn to live in His grace, taking each moment as it comes, and learning to be an encourager to all she comes into contact with.