Swiftly Flow The Years

On Oct. 29, 1988, Mrs. HolyCoast and I attended a concert at Rose Drive Friends Church in Yorba Linda, CA, featuring a well-known Christian pianist. The concert was painfully loud, so at the intermission we slipped out and headed to the Marie Calendar's restaurant in Tustin for a late dinner. During dinner my wife suddenly got a stricken look on her face, and I knew our lives were about to change forever, for it was at that instant her water broke. Yes, it looked like our first born had decided the time was right to make an entrance into the world, and she didn't mind announcing her plans in a very public place.

We spent a sleepless night at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach (labor didn't kick in on its own), and at 7am they started inducing her with a Pitocin drip. For those of you who haven't gone through something like that, instead of labor gradually building up, Pitocin takes you from zero to 60 in about 2 seconds flat. The war was on.

An epidural later in the morning made everything right with the world, and at 3:12 Miss Emily took her first bow. It's been quite a ride since then.

Seventeen years later she's now a high school junior and a very accomplished musician, playing flute and piccolo in the marching band, wind ensemble, various chamber groups, and the South County Youth Symphony Orchestra. She's got quite an artistic flair, and has designed some of the coolest looking bead flower jewelry you'd ever want to see. She's a busy kid, and a real blessing to her family.

Tonight she and several friends, along with her brother and some of his friends, will celebrate her birthday at Knott's Halloween Haunt (we're belatedly celebrating his too). Some big changes will be here before you know it - college, and who knows what else. It seems like only yesterday that a two-year old Emily came walking down the stairs on Halloween night wearing a sparkly white tutu and shaking her bottom so she should see the sparkles. Where did the time go?

Happy birthday, sweetie! Your mom and dad love you very much.