"Have you ever tried getting out of your car through the exhaust pipe?" - Murphy Brown

After a month of bed-rest, Ai was ready to get that baby out! We had a duffel with clothes for the new arrival all prepared and in the trunk of our car. We even had gone to the hospital to get our names in the system. Now, all we had to do was wait.

On Sunday, January 6, we went to church like normal, but Ai's contractions were more intense than usual so she left early. After I had finished my responsibilities for the day (including a two-hour nap), we decided to go to the hospital just to see if Ai was getting any further along. After nearly two hours in the hospital, and Ai going from "one" to "three-and-a-half," the nurses informed us that we were going to be admitted and the doctor contacted to come and take care of the delivery. We were so excited. The day had finally come: January 6, 2008!

At 2 o'clock in the morning we were sent home.

We were totally crushed. I went to school and then to work just like normal the next day. I was sitting in the middle of my first trumpet lesson of the evening when my cell phone rang. Under normal circumstances I wouldn't even have paid any attention to it, but I think you can understand why I answered. On the other end of the line I spoke to a woman who said she was my wife, but she was panting and speaking in broken sentences mingled with grunts and screams. I decided to do what she grunted and before my student had his horn off his face I was on I-15 heading from American Fork to Provo. My older brother was called to come and watch Caden while my best friend was kind enough to rush Ai and her mom to the hospital (on a side note, he was a nervous wreck thinking that he might have to deliver a baby on the side of the road. This is the same man who nearly passed out at the sight of a dissected worm).

This is all happening around 6:00 p.m. By 9:55 we had a beautiful baby girl. Well, she's beautiful now. When we first saw her she was all covered in blood and this pasty white stuff. Once the nurses cleaned her off it was a lot easier to be sincere in saying she was beautiful.

Born two and a half weeks early, Maya Blackhurst weighs 7 pounds 13 ounces and is 19 inches long. Here's her Japanese name: 真椰. She and her mom are doing great! Dad is wearing his little, pink hospital bracelet like it's a medal.

Try to beat that FHE!