At 1am exactly, 5 years ago today, my third child was born.

Adrianna came to us as a surprise in every way.

When I was in the thick of a financially-failing yarn store ownership, trying to decide on the next business move.

As I took on a second job and went without seeing my husband ever……If you know me now, you may think our schedules are crazy, but here is a brief run through of 5 years and 9 months ago:

At 7am, a lovely and gracious friend who happened to run a preschool, picked up my 3.5 year old son and took him to school with her – forty five minutes from home – until 6pm every night.  My then 10 month old little girl would jump in the car with me and go open the yarn store downtown.  My Scott would head to work.  When he left work at 5, he would pick up Katie and go home to meet Allen who would be dropped off from school – and I would head to work at a local coffee shop until 11:30pm .

As you can imagine, life was collapsing in more ways than financial….

And then one day I just didn’t feel right – and I knew that I had had that feeling before and I was so so sad, and confused and worried and frustrated, and yes – Pregnant.  That crazy fact changed everything: The yarn store closed, My son stayed home and was not shipped off to school – my daughter became better acquainted with our house rather than the yarn store –  and I got to see more of my husband.

9 months later, 2 weeks before her due date, I sat surrounded by my knitting friends – no longer able to meet at my yarn store, we inhabited a little cafe which catered a surprise baby shower for me that night – as I knit and ate and opened lovingly made gifts, I began having contractions.  Having been pregnant previously, and having gone through 3 bouts of false labor trips to the hospital with my second child, I successfully ignored these contractions thinking they would pass.  I got home around 10pm and told Scott that I was in labor.  He was skeptical being that he had rushed me to the hospital during those previous bouts of false labor, and he went to bed.  Well, surprise!  My darling girl really did come that night – we made it to the hospital around 11:45 and she was born at 1am – my most petit child, weighing in at 7lbs. 6oz.

Today I am thankful for Adrianna – surprising as she was, she has blessed us with her life in unexpected ways, continuously and while the days are not easy and the nights often long, I would not change a single minute of the past five years.

Happy Birthday my love.