One year in Hawaii

It's been one year since I've seen my daughter Felicia, son-in-law Will, and grandsons Allan and Nathan. They had to transfer to Hawaii last April - Will is in the military. He is an amazing daddy to his two boys and a wonderful father and provider for Felicia. I thank God that He placed Will in Felicia's life.
This picture is from November 2006. They lived in WV during this time and had come in town for the birth of my granddaughter...Felicia's twin sister's baby.
When they lived in WV I was able to go see them every couple of months. I can't believe it has been a year since I've seen them last. The boys have grown up so much.

Felicia said Allan is going to start school this fall. It's so hard to believe that my precious Allan is already old enough to be going to school!

I remember when he was born. Felicia got pregnant at the end of her sophomore year of high school. Because she was covered under our insurance we all decided she would stay living with us until after Allan was born and then she and Will would get married. She managed to keep her position as section leader in the band her junior year and march in competitions up until mid-November. By then she was 7 months pregnant and starting to go into early labor. She had to go into the hospital two different times to have her labor stopped and in early December she was placed on bed rest. She was an honor student and her sister brought her work home for her - her teachers were wonderful about working with her to help her finish this semester.

The week of exams (right before Christmas break) we arranged it so I would take her to school every day to take one exam a day. On Thursday after she completed her exam, I took her to meet Will and they went to her doctor's appt together. She was 8 months pregnant. She and Will went to lunch after the appointment and then he had to go to work so we had arranged to meet back up again around 3:00 for Felicia to come home with me.

On the way back to the house Felicia told me her doctor's appt had gone well and she wasn't dilated anymore than last time and the doctor had high hopes for her to be able to carry the baby another couple weeks. I had been making sure somebody was with Felicia around the clock-- since neither Felicia nor Tina drove (even though they were 16-yrs-old by then) but I needed to run to the mall to check on a fundraiser booth I was in charge of. I was telling Felicia I was going to leave her at home with Tina while Greg and I ran to the mall to check on this booth to make sure it was manned and we would be back in an hour. I noticed Felicia had started moving around in the car like she was uncomfortable but she assured me she was okay...it was just her back was a little achy from being out and in the car so much. When we got home she went and laid in my bed to rest and Greg & left the house.

Twenty minutes later we are just about to arrive at the mall and I get a panicked call from Tina.
"Mom! Felicia's in labor!"
Now we had been down this road for the last month and I just left her 20 minutes ago so I calmly tell Tina "honey, her back is just bothering her, she's had a long day...tell her to go get in the shower like the doctor told her to do when her back hurts."
She said "I'll try but she is really crying. You need to come home!"
I told her "I just got here to the mall, let me run in and check on the booth and I'll come right back. It's going to take me another 30-45 mins to get home in this traffic though. I'll call your grandma to see if she is closer than I am and get her to come home."

I'm just mildly worried at this time because after all she DID just get checked at the doctor's office today and I WAS just at the house with her and she was okay...wasn't she? I called my mom and found out she was closer to the house than I was so I filled her in on what Tina had said and asked her if she could head on over there to check on things.

Over the course of the next 20 mins (the time it took my mom to reach the house) Tina called me 4-5 times frantic and by now I could hear Felicia in the background...alternatively doing breathing exercises and screaming at Tina! Once my mom got there and assessed the situation she tried to get Felicia in the car to take her to the hospital but as they were backing out of the driveway, Felicia screams "STOP! I have to go to the bathroom!" and she jumps out of the car and runs in the house with my mom and Tina trailing behind her yelling "No you don't...that's the baby....you need to go to the hospital!"

While she is sitting on the toilet and my mom is begging her to get off the toilet Tina calls me again. I tell Tina "Hang up the phone and call 911 NOW!!" Tina calls 911 and hands the phone to my mom...Tina is too hysterical to talk to the operator. (They are identical twins and she "experienced" this much too closely with her twin sister!! LOL) The 911 dispatcher tells my mom she has to get Felicia off the toilet and into a bed...she said to tell Felicia she is going to have her baby in the toilet if she doesn't get up right now.

Within 5 minutes the Fire Dept was at our house. We live in a small community and we know many of the firemen from church...sure enough when they heard the call go out and that it was our house, the ones WE know responded to the call. When they checked Felicia she was ready to deliver right then. The ambulance transported her to the hospital and Will made it there at the same time as Felicia did. Greg and I were closer to the hospital than everyone so we just stayed in town and met the ambulance there. She delivered 5 mins after she got there...as soon as they allowed her to get in the room and push one time - out popped sweet Allan.

Here he is at 4 months old.

We went back to the Fire Dept when he was about a month old and took homemade goodies up to them and had Felicia & Allan's picture taken with everyone. It has made a great scrapbook page in our albums!

Felicia decided she didn't want to finish out the rest of that year at her regular high school. She opted to graduate early. Allan was born in December - one week before Christmas. She and Will got married Feb 14th and moved into a small apartment. She graduated in May of that year and Will joined the Navy in June. They moved to WV when she was 17 and had their 2nd child in 2005. She has earned her Associate's Degree and will be graduating in a couple of months from Massage Therapy school. I am so proud of my beautiful daughter and her husband for all they have been able to do at such a young age.
I miss them dearly!