A Boy was Born

Thirty-one years ago. Doesn't seem so long ago, yet sometimes feels like forever. Grumpy and I were in Okinawa, Japan while he served a 3 year tour of duty with the Air Force. We were living in a little house outside the base and the whole island was on water rationing. We had water every other day. It was a pretty awful little house, and I have to say I was suffering big time from culture shock. Of course messed up hormones weren't helping as I was expecting our fourth child. I turned 25 soon after we moved there, and life was very different from anything I had yet experienced. Whether from state of mind, circumstances, physical conditions, or a combination of everything, I was soon clinically depressed and physically ill. After visiting the Dr., Grumpy and I made the decision to send me stateside to have the baby. This was not an easy decision, as it would mean at least a 6 month absence from each other. That seemed like an impossibly long time. I was so sick, we decided to make the sacrifice and be apart for that length of time. The Dr. gave me a verbal clearance to board a plane on Okinawa along with Tawna, Taya and Summer. I only had enough time to throw a few things in a bag and go, Grumpy would send more of our things later. I was very sad as I boarded the plane and knew that I could be bumped off anywhere along the route home if there were active duty personnel that needed our seats. I wasn't worried that Grumpy would be okay, but I knew he would miss us terribly as we would him. On arriving in California, I called Nan and Pop to please come and get us from the airport when my connecting flight landed in Phoenix. They only had that one hour notice that I was coming. They were there to pick us up, and that's when I found out Nana was supposed to be at Tracy's baby shower. Tracy was expecting their first baby in a few weeks. She was sure surprised when Nana brought me in, and I don't remember anything else about that night.

It took me awhile to recover from whatever was wrong with me physically. My depression was awhile getting better too, but eventually I was feeling better. The months went by and I remember doing some random projects. I did some interior design work including painting for the small terminal at Falcon Field. I did some similar work for Dr. Farnsworth's OB-GYN offices and made a couple of huge macrame hangings for the new house Nana and Papa were planning to build. Then, it was May and I was ready for my baby to come. Nothing too dramatic about the delivery. I was in the hospital overnight as I was contracting enough to stay, but not really doing much until the Dr. came in to check me in the morning and then things moved pretty fast. I remember being so pleased that we had a boy, and knew that Grumpy was looking forward to having a son. I do remember holding him for the first time and the thought came to me that I should breast feed this sweet baby. I hadn't had a very good experience with that, so kind of blew it off and stuck with the decision to bottle feed. Wow, would I come to regret ignoring the spirit trying to tell me what I needed to know. That is a whole other story.

I called Grumpy to let him know he had a 8lb. 3oz. son and he was very excited about it. He was coming to some kind of training or something in California in a few weeks and got permission to come and see us in Arizona before he had to return to Okinawa. He came, we got permission to have R.B. blessed in Nana and Papa's home before he had to go back. It was hard to see him go. After a few more weeks Grumpy called me and said it was time to come home. I knew it was, but it was very hard to leave Arizona to go back to Okinawa. That trip is also another story. I returned to Grumpy with 4 children and many misgivings about what was in store for us on this tiny island. R.B. spent a lot of time in a baby-pack wrapped around me, but seemed content while I tried to get everything moved into our new (and better) house in a section of the island called Awase. The best thing about it was that we were all together again and that was the best. We were happy to have this little boy in our home, and of course things would never be the same again. So glad that R.B.'s birthday is usually so close to mother's day. I truly appreciate his spirit, his crazy personality and all the things that make him R.B. I love you son, and am ever grateful you came to us. Happy Birthday. (even if you are the oldest 31 year-old you know.) I wish I had pictures to post of all these things, but sadly, must not have had a camera as I have very few pictures of these times. The ones I do have I haven't scanned yet, so I guess I have a goal to get those done. We'll have to settle for this one of you taken at Austin's baptism. Someday I'll find the one of you with your two-year-old almost chubby body in your superman underwear. Now that was a good pic.