It Takes A Village

Before I had children, I thought that the saying, "It takes a village to raise a child" was very foolish.  I was naive and thought that a loving mom and dad was the only thing necessary to raise a child.

Then I became a mom.

A village around the world helped raise Beau.  His birth mom cared for him for his first precious days of life.  Then when his birth mom made the excruciating decision to make an adoption plan, he spent two weeks in the hospital to take care of a few health issues.  I have to believe that during his stay in the hospital, there were compassionate nurses who loved him as their own since he had no permanent caretaker with him at that time.   Then his loving foster families stood in the gap for us until we were united as a family.

Then came Palmer.  Once again, the village (the body of Christ) stepped in just when they were needed.

I have to thank my family for being there for us.

When I went into labor in Nashville, my cousin Erica immediately drove to hospice to be with my mom because we would need to drop Beau off there.  So my mom and Erica watched Beau at my dad's hospital while Raleigh and I got checked in down the road.  My mom would do absolutely anything for Beau, and now Palmer too.

Once I started pushing, my mom, Erica, and Beau came to our hospital.  One of my parent's neighbors was visiting my dad and he helped get all of Beau's stuff (2 year olds have a lot of stuff) to the car.

My aunt Carolyn stayed with my dad at hospice to help him order dinner and cut his food once it was delivered.

One of the many blessings of delivering Palmer in Nashville is that my family was able to be there to celebrate with us.  Thanks Erica, Matt, Kaitlin, Sarah, and Carolyn for being there.

When I went into labor, my sister in law Stacey and sweet baby Grey drove from Birmingham to Nashville.  Brandon drove from North Carolina, where he had just completed a photo shoot.

My sister Angie had just driven home after being in Nashville with my dad the night he was moved to hospice.  She drove back to Nashville to celebrate Palmer's arrival.

Obviously we did not quite have everything we needed, so Erica, Angie, Brandon and Stacey set up a complete "nursery" at my parents' house....complete with a pack and play, a diaper genie, clothes, diapers, wipes, baby washcloths, etc, etc.  Seriously they thought of everything.

My mom moved out of the master bedroom and into a guest bedroom so that we would have plenty of space.

Erica, Angie, Brandon and Stacey even had to take off work to help with Beau.  Obviously under different circumstances, my mom would have stayed with Beau.  But my mom needed to be with my dad.  I really cannot thank everyone enough for everything!  Raleigh and I could relax at the hospital with Palmer knowing that Beau was being taken care of.

Raleigh's mom hopped on a plane from Colorado to be there with us once we got discharged from the hospital.  She anticipated what we would need before we even knew we needed it...from diaper changes, meal cooking, laundry, etc...

My niece Cayci taught Palmer to use his paci one night at hospice when my mom and I left the room for a few minutes to grab Subway.

Once my dad passed away, the village continued to love us well.  My aunts took care of Palmer during the memorial service.  I wanted him there with me, but did not want him passed around all day.  Obviously everyone wanted to meet him, but he was only one week old, so I wanted to be wise about protecting him from too many germs.  So my aunts kept him in the church.  They fed him bottles, changed his diapers, etc.  I really didn't even know where he was in the church, when he ate, or anything.  I just handed him over with the diaper bag and knew that he was well cared for and had nothing to worry about.

Raleigh's sister Beth, who flew in from Colorado, took care of Beau during the visitation portion of the memorial service.  I knew that he would not be able to stand still during 2 hours of visitation, nor would it really be appropriate for him to be there.  So he stayed home with Beth.  I did however want him at the service portion of the day.  My dad loved Beau so much.  I mean my dad's whole face lit up when Beau was around.  One night in the hospital shortly before my dad moved to hospice, Beau practically ate my dad's whole dinner off of my dad's fork.  My dad always said that Beau's germs were good germs. Anyway, we had a celebratory tone at the service, and I knew my dad would want him there.  So Beth brought him and sat with him at the service.

I know I am unintentionally leaving people out, but it took a village of family members to raise Beau and Palmer thus far, and I know that there will continue to be seasons of life when the village is needed again.

Thank you to everyone for loving us well during this season of life.