Welcome to the 101st post.

Today is November 1st 2008, exactly five years since I proposed to Mary Jane. For those of you keeping track, she said yes.

Some how 101 combined with this anniversary screamed “time to look back before we go forward” to me. With that in mind…
We were living in Chicago at the time. Mary Jane was working at Children’s Memorial Hospital and worked a 12 hour shift that day. She thought we were going to a Halloween party that night. What she didn’t know was that I had gotten a hold of her spare key and used it to get into her little one room apartment. When she came home she expected to find a dark empty apartment, but what she found instead was a room full of candles and flowers with me in the middle holding…yep, you guessed it, a small rabid pitbull. Okay…it was a ring. Now to really understand what happened next you have to know something about Mary Jane in Chicago. She walked to work and carried this big ole backpack with her. The thing was filled with…I never really knew what, but it was stinking heavy and when it was on her back she was forced to hunch over. When Mary Jane opened the door and saw me standing there she stood up which off centered her balance and she fell backward out the door. She righted herself, came in, and there was much laughter, jumping, and joy.

Now, while I’m tempted to go on this way and narrate the last five years it would take…five years…and probably only be of interest to Mary Jane and myself, so I’ll skip to a look back at the events a little more directly related to our current situation.

Some of you may remember that we had a lot of trouble getting pregnant. We hadn't given up hope but we were pretty near the end of the line when Mary Jane got pregnant. Here's a picture of us the night we found out. Mary Jane had once again just come home from work and taken "the test". Once again there was much joy, laughter, and prayers of thanks.

Having tried so long, and so many people having been praying for us we decided it to have a little fun announcing the pregnancy to everyone. We sent out this postcard

and used it to launch this blog. (if you look back this postcard is the first post)

Things seemed to be going smoothly, there was very little to blog about, until Thursday morning August 28 at 3 in the morning when Mary Jane's water broke. Interestingly enough Tuesday we had a doctor's appointment where the doctor had given us an "A+" and told us things "couldn't be going better." Just goes to show you...

The rest is pretty well documented on the blog. We went to MoBap and were transferred to Barnes because it is attached to Children's. The hope was that once we stopped the initial labor that maybe we could just live in the hospital for a month or so.
Mary Jane was hooked up to a monitor for the first 36 hours or so. We made it past the 48 hour window, she wasn't having any contractions and everything looked "good." We were just settling in to what we hoped would be a long stay when Parker's placenta abrupted and we were suddenly in a mad dash for the operating room.

Before I could blink I was left in a room and handed a "bunny suit" to put on. Of course no one actually gave me any instruction on how to put the thing on. I guess they figured it was obvious, but... not to me. I put it on backwards.
No one told me. Not in all the time I stood around waiting did anyone say...oh and by the way...you look like a tool. I just stood there waiting...and waiting...and waiting. And then I got sick of waiting. They told me it would be about ten minutes until I could go in. At ten minutes and twenty-two seconds I decided there had been entirely too much waiting going on and I head out of the room and began to wait in the hallway. When that didn't send the promised person to send me into Mary Jane I went to the nurses' station. One of the nurses said she would go into the OR and see if I could come in yet. I waited a few more minutes and then decided I would at least stand in the hallway that lead to the OR so I could see the nurse coming. When that didn't get things done I began to move towards the door asking every employee who passed by if I could go in yet. I have no idea how many employees finally went in to ask but they all did and everyone in the OR soon new that "dad" wanted in. By the time they finally came to get me they didn't have far to go...my face was pressed up against the door. This entire time I was standing there with my "bunny suit" on backwards. When did I find this out? After the surgery. After Mary Jane was sewn back up. After Parker had been wheeled out, while they were trying to reintubate Emma Jane (who successfully extubated herself three times. They were evidently having trouble controlling the flailing arms of an extremely powerful 14 week premature baby). While we were waiting Mary Jane suddenly looked at me and laughed "is that on backwards?"
So, even in the midst of fear, confusion, and pain, my beautiful wonderful wife was able to muster a laugh.
That question I asked five years ago...best question I ever asked.

What is this picture all about? It is a photo taken during our infant massage therapy class with the ocupational therapist. What am I doing with my pinky? I have no idea. Telling the occupational therapist to hang loose? Maybe I'm trying to convey the "hang loose" mentality to Emma Jane. Really, really don't know.