February 18th, 2008 - A Marvelous Monday!

Since I'm hoping to use this blog to document and share the life of our sweet Ella Rae I thought I should start from the beginning, February 18th, 2008...her birth! Brad and I woke up (although neither of us really slept) around 5am on that Monday to make it to the hospital for my induction at 6:30am. Brad's brother Thunder, his wife, Melissa and Brad's cousin Wendy all arrived to share in the day! While Melissa documented everything in a small journal for us and took great pictures, Wendy videotaped EVERYTHING! We were all so excited that we laughed all day and said the funniest things. Around 2pm I was fully dilated and ready to begin pushing. Our pastors wife, Leigh-Anne stopped by just in time and said a quick prayer with all of us. Two hours later at 4:25pm we had our precious daughter. God's presence could truly be felt throughout the day...it was filled with laughter, phone calls and text messaging of course. The funniest memory is when our pastor, Mike, came by afterwards and ask if I needed anything. I said, "Honestly, I would love a #1 from Chick-Fil-A with a cookies-n-cream milkshake." He GOT IT! Now tell me that's not a great preacher!