Yes, there is a new addition to “The Little Condo on the Prairie”, one who has become the unwitting center of our household, commanding rapt attention at the slightest twitch of her face. Corley Jane Breland has come into our lives, which will never be the same as a result. More on her birth later — that is a story in itself! But here is a sneak peek at our family goings-on just before and after that wondrous birth …

SECRET RECIPE
Corley was a week overdue when she was born, and Libby had been SO ready for her to arrive. She had read that drinking raspberry tea would help contractions and labor start, so 4 days after her due date, with her doctor’s permission, she and Josh bought some organic raspberry tea from the health food store on the way home from her appointment.
When they arrived home with it, Cheryl & Josh began to gather the pan, pitcher, etc. to make the tea. As they looked at the box, I could hear Josh muse: “I wonder what would happen if I were to drink it?!”
Then when Josh brought Libby her tea, she took one sip of it and let out a long moan. I glanced up, concerned — and Libby looked at me and chuckled. She was pulling my leg. Meanie!
(Oh, in case you are curious, the tea did nothing for Libby … or for Josh! 🙂

MATH SINS
Although our family’s focus was rightly on Libby for the week, life did have to go on. On Memorial Day, Cheryl had Michael do a little math. She reviewed with him several “little mistakes” he had been making.
“Why do you think you keep doing that?” she asked.
“I’m not perfect” he said matter-of-factly. “All have fallen short of the glory of math.”

MIRACULOUS TIMING
The kids (Paul, David & Ashley, and Michael) came up to the hospital Friday at about 3:30. The hospital staff had estimated at one time that Lib might deliver at about 3, but it was not to be. The hospital played “Lullaby” every time a baby was born, and the song was played 3 times while we sat there, but each time our hopes were dashed — none of them was Corley.
Someone said, with an exasperated tone, “Come on, Libby!”
Michael chimed in, with his best Billy Crystal voice: “You rush a miracle, you get a rotten miracle!” (“Miracle Max”, from “The Princess Bride”, for the uninitiated:-)

DISCIPLINE AT THE HOSPITAL
Michael has gotten in the habit of flipping his phone repeatedly in the air, which annoys several of his siblings and his mother. Cheryl had spoken to him once about not continuing to do that. When we all went to the hospital to see Libby and the new baby, Michael sat in the waiting room, annoyingly flipping his phone over and over and over. Cheryl warned him, “If you flip that phone one more time, I am going to come over and take it away from you!” Just then, Michael flipped the phone one more time. Someone in the room gasped.
Michael began to plead for his “phone life” as Cheryl made her way across the room: “No, don’t take it; I was just teasing; I was going to do it just that one time; you know, like when a parent says, ‘dont say, “peep”‘, and so you say “peep” one more time?!”
I said, “Yeah, that is exactly what it is like — and this is exactly what is going to happen: we take it away.”
Cheryl added: “I sat here all day and watched parents in this waiting room tell kids over and over to stop doing things or else, and they never followed through. I am not going to be that parent!” She took the phone, to Michael’s chagrin.
A few seconds later, I looked up and saw my son David laughing.
Cheryl was sitting there across the room, flipping Michael’s phone …

HOW’S SHE DOING?
Cheryl & I had stayed the first night in the labor/delivery room with Libby & Josh, as they got settled in, and started some of the preliminary medicines. But the next morning, as things really got going, we exited to the waiting room. Josh would come out, or text us, with an update from time to time. But of course we wondered how Libby was really feeling. We would soon find out. At one point, out of the blue she sent Cheryl a text:
“This is what hell should be like.”
I guess that answered that question!
BUT … some minutes later Cheryl received another text: “This epidural is heaven!”
That may be the closest they come to salvation through medicine!

BIBLICAL ALLUSION
To pass time at home while Libby was at the hospital with Corley, Paul, David & Ashley, and Michael played the video game “Call of Duty.” They each had a controller, and the game kept score of the total “kills” for each. At one point, I was laying in bed recuperating from all the excitement, but I could hear David triumphantly exclaim after one game: “I killed more than all three of you put together!”
Michael responded: “Paul has slain his thousands, but David his ten thousands.” (I Samuel 18:7)

SLEEP WALKER?
After their first night home (at our condo) I asked Lib how everyone did. I told her we only heard Corley cry once from our room, and Libby said that was probably the only time she really cried all night. She did well, she said, and for the most part, they all slept well, thankfully. She did say that at one point in the middle of the night, Josh got up, and stood in front of the french doors that go out to the patio, which are right behind my recliner where Libby spent the night. She asked him what he was doing, and he responded, “I’m just making sure everything’s all right.” The thing was, the curtains were pulled shut in front of his face! He was sound asleep, and didn’t remember anything about it the next day!
When she told Josh the next morning, he said, “Well, you were in good hands; Superman was watching out for you with his x-ray vision!”

BABY ADJUSTMENTS
The Tuesday morning after Corley was born, I was shaving, when from the mirror I saw Cheryl come into the bedroom. I noticed that she shut the door, and, oddly enough, she had a glass and, of all things, a full ice cube tray in her hand!
I turned around and asked: “Why do you have those things in HERE?”
“Libby and the baby are asleep in the living room”, she answered, “and I didn’t want to wake them up.” She then cracked the ice out of the tray and plunked it into her glass, then carried it all softly back to the kitchen.
Just some little accommodations for our new VIP!