The journey home

August 31, Labor Day weekend 1979, was an interesting time in my life. It was the weekend I brought home my youngest child and my only girl. Christina Marie was born in Albuquerque, NM at Presbyterian Hospital at 4:45 P.M.

When one of the Laguna Reservation Nuns was told her name she said, "Oh you named her after Christ Mary". Wrong! Her first name Christina was for a  Swedish princess who became a queen at a very young age. A maternal great grandfather Godfrey Halverson was born in Sweden. Marie was for her Spanish paternal grandmother Marie (Mary) Milan and her French maternal great grandmother Laura Marie Laviolette . So she ended up being a mixture of several generations.

The Labor Day weekend in 1979 began very early on Friday morning with a trip to Presbyterian Hospital almost 100 miles away from Old Laguna where we lived at the time. My husband, Donald was working a night shift at the mines, my due date had passed and the doctor decided since we lived so far away  it would be a good idea to start labor. Her actual birth took most of the day and her father was present in the delivery room. His first comment upon holding her was, "She has fingernails".

Because I didn't live in Albuquerque I was not released until Sunday, as a precaution. My doctor had a very busy weekend with way too many babies to deliver. I can still see him, exhausted, sitting in my room waiting  to release me. Even though I was over 40 the birth and recovery went very well. I had an amniocentesis early in the pregnancy so I knew she was a girl before she arrived. I had already named her. That test was very stressful because the cells had to grow a second time, causing me to have to wait for the results for about four months.

Leaving the hospital we began the trip home. On the way we stopped off at the Catholic church to introduce Christina to Father Bill, the Pastor. I remember lifting her out the passenger window and putting her into his arms for a blessing. The surprised look on his face was hilarious.

The next stop was home. We were met by her paternal grandfather, Wally and I allowed him to carry her into the house and lay her in her crib. I noticed a very large bear that my son David, who was 13 at the time, had purchased and placed in the crib. We ended up naming it using the Spanish word for water. (I know the word I just can't spell it!) My other son Jeffrey 18 was in the Army at the time and didn't meet Christina for several months.

Well that's the story of the journey home