Just three days away...

till July 23rd. It's that infamous day where I honestly believe when it hits - summer's over. August is like a speed race to the end of this blissful season...

About thirty-five years ago, there was this couple who had seven children. The youngest was about to turn seven the following month. Well, actually, now their youngest was two weeks late in arriving. The mother's due date for their eighth child was around July 7-8. "It's probably another girl, but I can never be sure," she told her family and friends. This was because of their seven children, only one was a boy.

The wee hours of the 23rd finally came and she went into labor! The older siblings watched the younger ones as the mom and dad made their way to the hospital. As she laid there waiting for her doctor to come and deliver her baby (like he had all the others) she kept getting excuses as to why he hadn't gotten there yet. "Oh, he's in traffic," to "He's with another patient, he'll be right here" was all she kept hearing. As she started going into the heavy pushing and he still wasn't there, another doctor showed up.

Now she had other things on her mind - like giving birth! Her baby was half way down the birth canal when they lost the heartbeat. 'Mrs. Smith, we have to do an emergency C-section right now!' There was no time to wait - they put her under and before she knew it, she was coming out of anesthesia. The nurse gave her her baby to hold...her seventh daughter.

Knowing this would be her last, she gave her youngest sister's name as the middle name for this daughter...for a first name, though, she still hadn't decided. Her husband had a couple ideas but none really stuck with them. At last she thought of it. "'Adrianne' is a pretty name," she thought and so the baby was named.

Two weeks after my arrival, my mom brought me in for the check-up with the doctor that was supposed to be the one delivering me. As we walked into his office, my mom couldn't wait to ask where he was back on the 23rd.

"Well, Mrs. Smith, I apologize for not being there for Adrianne's birth. I was in the hospital, though, just two floors down. I was in the cafeteria with some colleagues and heard the page. I got up to leave and, boom! I had a mild heart attack right then and there. I'm doing ok, just came back in today to start seeing some patients."

At the time, my mom had been pretty surprised by that story. I, however, when told the story, wasn't. Seeing as how these were the events at the kickoff to my life, it helped explain a lot of what's happened since...

This Saturday marks the 35th anniversary of my mom's only C-section (I quite literally 'broke the mold'), her doctor's first mild heart attack (not sure if he'd had any others), and our family coming to a 'completion' of sorts (My eldest sister had her first child three years later so that didn't last long.). I could never thank my parents enough for all they've done for me in those 35 years...and for the example they started to set for my siblings when they married 57 years ago. I love you both very much...

A few sidenotes:
1. OK, thinking summer's over after my birthday is a tad self-centered. When I was growing up I honestly felt that way.
2. My mom's name isn't "Mrs. Smith" - changed it to protect the innocent. She would HOWL if she knew this story was on the WORLD WIDE web.
3. The doctors and nurses kept the truth from my mom because they didn't want to upset her and as traumatic as the delivery was, good thing they didn't tell her.
4. I've had a zillion people ask about where my name came from - we're not French, we're not Catholic (oh, yeah, there was a line of Popes named 'Adrian'), and my parents don't have a thing for the 'Adriatic Sea'...but even MORE IMPORTANT - I was born prior to the 'Rocky' movies - like a good six years before the first one came out!
5. I have sisters that are identical twins - rarely does anyone in my family confuse them. The sister one up from me - yeah, she's 7 years older, MUCH shorter than I and we have COMPLETELY different personalities. Her name is Andrea and we're MIXED up 98% of the time in my family. Hilarious.

Happy Early Birthday to me :) Have a great Wednesday folks!