Why?

We took off for St. Louis last Friday incredibly spur-of-the-moment.  Hubby and I have actually never picked up and left on a big trip like that on such short notice.

Hubby got the news around 9:00am that our sister-in-law was in labor at the hospital and he called me and said, "Do you want to go to St. Louis this weekend?"

I immediately responded with, "Is Mandy in labor?" because her due date was two weeks away and that was the only reason I could think of that Hubby would suggest something like that.

Hubby confirmed that her water had broken, and I said, "Sure, let's go."

"I was kidding," Hubby replied...

Well, by 10:00am we had plane tickets and had made the decision to go.  We were booked on a 4:00pm plane and scheduled to land in St. Louis around 10:30pm.

As it happened, our 4:00pm flight was delayed and delayed... and finally canceled.  So, we spent the night near the airport and caught a 6:15am flight the next morning and arrived in St. Louis around noon.

Our nephew, as it would turn out, took his time arriving and was born about 11:15am -- and we landed about thirty minutes later and were meeting him at the hospital about an hour after he was born.

So, why did we fly cross-country with two babies and a toddler to meet our nephew?

Because we could.

We have been present for all of the births of our nieces and nephews thus far... not really because it was planned, but because the babies have been born when we were in town.  It has worked really well.

Now, here comes a new nephew... and what started as a joke -- let's head to St. Louis became something we really wanted to do because, in this case, we could.

If we had received horrible news that a tragedy had happened in St. Louis, we would have hopped a plane and headed right out... why can't we hop a plane and show up for something wonderful happening as well?

Hubby and I know that we may not be able to be present for every great thing that happens in our families, and we might not be there for he births of all of our nieces and nephews... but we could be there this time... so we went and we were so happy with that decision.