I was born on April 29, 2003. I don't know what time because when I asked my mother, she couldn't remember.
That day was unseasonably cold and rainy.
My mom was a nursing student at the University and my dad was a dropout. He was working in kitchens as a line cook.
On that day, it was only supposed to be a checkup. My father had made it to all of her other appointments and he had been working a night shift so my mom told him to stay home and sleep.
This was before my parents had cell phones.
About an hour and a half after she left, my mother called our landline (I know, crazy) and told him that I would be born within the next couple of days. He wasn't worried right away.They had had their hospital bags packed for weeks and were ready to go when the time came. She told him to get some more rest and then go to the hospital that evening.
She called back an hour later. They were going to induce labor in 12 hours.
He started to slowly get ready then, still thinking they had time.
Shortly thereafter, he got another phone call. They were inducing labor in one hour.
My dad had to move.
At the time, the state of Iowa and my dad didn't see eye to eye as to whether or not he should have a license.
So my father was planning on taking the bus to the birth of his first child.
We roll in style.
He was standing at the bus stop in the rain with a million bags and an umbrella when a girl named Bri, who was a server at the restaurant he worked at, drove by. She slowed to a stop.
"Where you headed?" she asked.
"Guess," my dad had said.
"The airport?"
"Nope."
Her eyes then lit up with realization.
"Get in the car, Keller."
"I'm okay, the bus will be here soon."
"It wasn't a question."
She popped the trunk of her car and my dad loaded in the bags.
He put all of them on his shoulders and back and ran into the hospital.
He knew where the mother/baby wing was because they had attended lamaze classes there.
He ran up to the desk, out of breath and sweaty.
He dropped the bags at the front desk and said, "Keller. Anna Keller."
The woman lazily typed at her computer, eyelids drooping.
"Keller?"
"Yes, yes, I said that."
She gave him a smirk.
"You missed it."
"I what-?!"
A nurse ran out of the back and threw scrubs that were a size too small at him and said, "You didn't! You didn't miss it! Hurry!"
He threw on the scrubs and made it in time.
I was 19 inches long, 11 pounds 6 oz. Short and fat.
When they returned home, Bri had cleaned and decorated the entire house.
God bless Bri.
