Babes in the Snow

Everybody, meet one of my best friends, Liz.

Hi Liz!

Liz, Me, Sang (front)

Brian, John (back)

Ravenswood Vineyard, Sonoma, CA

Liz and I have been friends for many, many years. We have been through a lot together - shared some amazingly good times, some amazingly hard ones. I start fights with her parents' friends at a Knights of Columbus when she is 8 1/2 months pregnant and she just rolls her eyes at me and still loves me.

She is good peeps.

Liz was due to have her baby last week. Her due date came. And it went.

Girlfriend was not happy. But then you know what happened, right? Because everybody knows about that big, monster snowstorm - the largest in Washington, D.C. history - that came last weekend? You know - the one that dumped 3 feet of snow on us?

Yeah. That one.

(I am guessing you know where I am going with this).

So the Friday night, before the storm hits, I call Liz for an update. She sounded pretty miserable and obviously I was worried, but tried to play it cool so as not to cause panic, something which I am often known to do.

She had been to the Doctor that day. He told her to go home, even though she was set to get induced the Monday after the storm. Said, "Nah. It's not happening any time soon."

Now, Liz is really nice. She is way more polite than I am. Because if that had been me, I would have launched my butt off that table, grabbed that Dr. by the collar very calmly said, "Are you effing kidding me!!?? Get this baby out of me NOW, you donkey!"

But Liz is way classier than me and has some manners.

So she went home, with big plans to keep her feet up over the weekend.

And then it started snowing. And snowing.

And oh my goodness, SNOWING.

It's not a question of what happened, because I think you all know what happened. It's when it happened.

There was probably about 1 1/2 feet of snow on the ground when she went into labor in the early, early morning hours. Her husband, Brian, did a heroic job of shoveling out the long, windy and hilly driveway.

They got to the main road, somehow. The Reston Hospital was only a few miles away. It was not where she was registered to deliver, but she didn't have a choice.

But when they got to the main road, there were several trees down on the road. (What is this? Super Mario Brothers???!!)

Brian made it around the first two trees. But when trying to get over the third tree, they got stuck. Their wheels actually got stuck on the branches.

So you know Liz is probably freaking out about now. When you are in labor, every bump seems like agony. But girlfriend is trying to 4-wheel over trees in a blizzard so she was probably just a wee bit uncomfy.

So they called 911. The Fairfax County Fire and Rescue crew came to the rescue and actually had to take a chainsaw to cut through the tree and get the car out. (Is this a "Grey's Anatomy" episode?) In order to get the tree dislodged, the crew actually had to cut into the car, so there you go.

I don't think they liked that car anyway.

The EMTs got Liz and Brian into the ambulance. They battled through the nightmarish roads, roads you could no longer see.

Liz was in excruciating agony at this point. However, the wonderful folks who helped her and husband that night put her at ease immediately. They told her she was in good hands, tried to soothe and assure her that she could get to the hospital.

The driver of the ambulance had actually just returned from volunteering in Haiti, post earthquake. She did not know his name.

One of the EMTs, whose name Liz was able to get, was named David. "David" was always going to be the middle name of Liz and Brian's baby boy. The only question was the baby's first name. As David tried to ease both Liz and Brian's overwhelmed and somewhat frantic minds, he told them that his own son's name was Chase.

And so it was.

And so HE is.

Chase David.

A baby is God's opinion that the world should go on.

-- Carl Sandburg

Liz had to wait to get an epidural - she was not registered at this hospital so it took some time to get the paperwork through. By the time she was able to receive relief - she had done much of the labor drug free.

But after she told me her story, I wanted to take drugs. Seriously. It stressed me out a lot.

I want to say "Thank You" to the wonderful team that demonstrated human kindness, strength and tenacity to get Liz and Brian to the hospital during a storm in which you couldn't see two feet in front of you. For bringing this beautiful little boy into the world in a warm hospital room, where he was able to receive care from excellent nursing staff and a phenomenal Ob/Gyn that my friend is now a patient of.

I don't know if Liz and Brian know all the names of the EMTs that helped them that night. If you know any of the volunteer men on the force, please forward this to them and let them know how much what they do while they put their own lives on the lines is SO APPRECIATED.

I want to thank Brian for being an incredible trooper and responding with calm, rather than panic and for getting the job done after all that chaos was said and done.

Iknow that if we are in a crowded room of female friends and if anyone tries to talk about how hard their labor was, I have a feeling we'll have to look around to make sure Liz isn't there. Because if she is there, she's just gonna be shaking her head and saying, "No, I win this won. I seriously beat all of you at this one."

And I kind of have to agree.