Harbor Life Ministries

Induction is scheduled at 9pm tonight, Feb. 4, for Chelsy, whose due date was two days ago.

The sex of the baby is undetermined, so even though an induction takes some of the surprise out of the birth, the baby’s name could be Carson Zavier or Adelynn Joelle.

Chelsy will be parenting her child, boy or girl. Her mother Lena will assist her.

Please pray for Chelsy to have a healthy baby, and remember to check back tomorrow. Subscribing to our feed is a good way to keep on top of news from HLM.

            Hannah meets Samuel

Samuel Andrew, at 7 lb. 1 oz. and 21 inches long, arrived yesterday at 3:21 pm. Mom and baby are both doing well.

Her delivery was great. I was so impressed with her. She did such a great job.

Hannah’s mother could not get to Ohio for the delivery but should arrive Saturday, and then they plan to head back home on Monday to start school on Tuesday.

There were a few God things that happened at the hospital which I would love to share if anyone wants to hear.

Thanks again for all your love and prayers.

He’s finally here!

Hannah gave birth at 3:21 pm EDT to a baby boy weighing 7 lb. 1 oz., and 21 inches in length.

“She did great!” was Karla’s comment on the birth.

He has 10 fingers and 10 toes, but no name yet apparently. We’ll keep you posted. Check back or subscribe to our feed.

The day started at 5:30. Hannah woke Kirsten, our 18-year-old leaving for college in a few days who has become good friends in a short time with Hannah.

“Kirsten,” she said in her soft voice, “I think I’m really in labor now. The contractions hurt.”

The contractions were occurring about every two-to-three minutes. Kirsten and Hannah “hung out for awhile” (in Kirsten’s words), then woke Karla around 6:45 am. After showering and pulling everything together, they left for the hospital around 8.

The nurses checked her and found her cervix to be around 5 cm. dilated, half the distance to full dilation needed for childbirth.

They notified the doctor, who said she be in as soon as she could to break Hannah’s water. In the meantime, Hannah got comfortable–or as comfortable as she could get–in bed. The nurses wouldn’t allow her to get up and walk around until her water had been broken.

She tried out a few different positions as the contractions continued to get stronger.

The nurses did allow her to get onto the birthing ball for a short time. The birthing ball is air-filled plastic vinyl, about 3 feet in diameter, like a giant kickball. It helps stretch the muscles around the vaginal opening, loosening and relaxing them. It also takes some of the edge off the labor pains.

The doctor, who as it turned out had patients booked all day today at the office, stopped in on her lunch hour and broke the water. There had been speculation that Hannah would not have much water but that proved untrue.

With the water broken Hannah is able to get up and move around more, taking walks down the hall if she wishes.

The adoptive parents and their little 4-year-old daughter have been by Hannah’s side this morning, although they decided to send their daughter home at lunch with Grandma.

Please keep praying. Hopefully we’ll be able to announce soon, “it’s a boy!“

Colt Justice is the name given by the adoptive parents to a baby boy born Monday, June 1, 2009 at Community Hospital in Coldwater, Ohio.

Colt weighed 7 pounds, 12 ounces, and was 20.5 inches long at birth.

Josiah Shawn was born at 11:20 am on Sunday, February 1, 2009.

Labor was relatively short. It took India just two pushes after she and Connie McEldowney, the shepherding mom, arrived at the hospital just 50 minutes before Josiah was born.

Josiah weighed just 6 lb., 1 oz., and was 18.5 inches long.

Connie took India to the hospital the night before because of signs that she might be in labor, but after checking her, the hospital staff sent India back home.

India is parenting Josiah. She has been at with the McEldowney family in Russia, Ohio, since late October, 2008. She arrived at Harbor House last August, initially staying in Norwalk with the Eberles.

[More photos of India and Josiah can viewed on HarborLife's Flickr Photo pages.]

Monday, December 8th, was Natasha’s due date, which came and went, as did the 9th and the 10th, without event or any inkling of contractions.

This morning was her regular doctor’s visit. She is now at the hospital. The doctor says she may deliver today, or she may send her home and have her come back on Monday.

Please keep her in your prayers and check back for updates.

(The photo at right is not of Tasha at the hospital, but was taken last Thursday in Akron as she posed with Mr. Peanut outside the famous Peanut Shoppe.)

Gabriel James, born at 2:00 PM EST, a healthy 7 pounds, 2 ounces, 19 and three-quarters inches long. Lots of hair.

There was plenty of time. Jamie was only 4 cm dilated at 1:30 this afternoon, yet she had arrived to the hospital at 5:30 in the morning, nearly 8 hours (of labor) earlier. She had been given an epidural around noon and was trying to sleep a little through the contractions. The baby’s father, Tony, had even left the hospital.

Then the call came at 1:50 PM. It was the OB nurse on the phone. Jamie was pushing. Wow, that was fast.

It turned out that the doctor had said the baby would arrive by 2 PM. Gabriel arrived right on time.

Jamie is doing great. The adoptive mother Joelle was there for the birth, as was Tony. John Huffman, the adoption attorney, and his daughter Sarah, 18, arrived shortly after the birth. Sarah got to hold Gabriel. “I’ve never held a baby this small,” she said.

Harbor House Maternity Home’s original location in Celina is now for sale.

Built in the 1920s as a home for Dr. John Gibbons Sr., the founder of Gibbons Hospital in Celina, the home is actually connected to the hospital building by an attached garage, which, up until the closing of the hospital in 1980, was where the ambulance parked. From inside the garage you can either head east into the house or west into the hospital.

Entering the house from the garage brings you first into a small laundry room and then into the back hallway which links the kitchen/dining room with a back entrance and bedroom hallway. There’s a full bath and half bath on the first floor, three bedrooms, an office (in the front of the house directly off of the master bedroom), a room that served the maternity home as a lobby/foyer (the front door is part of the room), and a side door (that exits into the Fayette Street front drive) with a landing and stairs to the basement.

A historically unique feature of the house is found on the second floor, where at one time, during the baby boom of the 50s and 60s, you could find the delivery room, baby nursery, and maternity ward. With the large Catholic population in Mercer County, during the post-war late-1940s Gibbons Hospital had the highest birth rate per total patient count of all hospitals in the United States.

When the home was originally constructed the second story was a normal second story, but with the baby boom, Dr. Gibbons decided to rebuild his home’s second floor and connect it over the garage to the second floor of the hospital. Due to elevation differences between the house and the hospital, the connecting hallway had to be sloped to accommodate moving gurneys and carts easily between the two. Dr. Gibbons also extended the second floor to the east beyond his home, and built a medical office under it, which was dubbed the Gibbons Medical Center. Even though they shared a common floor/ceiling, the hospital portion of the remodeling had completely separate HVAC/electric/plumbing, so that the medical office could be leased or even sold to a third party.

Harbor House Maternity Home bought the old hospital building, the home and the second floor extension from Dr. Gibbons’ son, Dr. John Gibbons Jr., in 1990 on a land contract. In 2002 the adjoining-but-separate medical offices to the east, along with a free-standing carriage house turned three-bay garage behind the offices, were also purchased. Three tenants came with the property and provided income to help pay for taxes and maintenance.

One of the first upgrades to the property after the 2002 purchase was to replace the flat roof over the eastern corner office with a DuraLast(TM) 30-year roof, a $12,000 investment. Other upgrades were made over the past few years such as installing new furnaces.

After 48 hours of labor, Charlotte has had a healthy baby boy. Jayden Reid entered the world at 5:34 pm today, weighing 7 lbs, 13 oz, and 21.5 inches long. Both mom and baby are doing well.

Charlotte’s mother Rebekka made it from California in plenty of time and the adoptive parents, Brian and Christine, have been to the hospital to meet their new son.

Charlotte will probably be in the hospital until Monday; court is likely to be on Wednesday. Charlotte and Rebekka will stay at the house until court is over when they’ll return to California, probably next weekend.

If you want to see more pictures of Charlotte, the baby and the four girls in house, head over to www.flickr.com/harborlife.

Thanks for all your prayers… please continue to pray for Charlotte and her mother Rebekka as these next few days are very emotional for everyone.

Charlotte had her regular doctor’s visit Thursday. Although her due date isn’t until October 3rd, her doctor had reasons to get her admitted to the hospital and possibly start inducing labor.

Charlotte has been in good spirits throughout the past few weeks, even though her feet have been swelling, causing discomfort when she walks or stands.

Charlotte’s mother Rebekka, after getting the news via phone call, arrived yesterday on a flight from California. She is staying at the hospital with Charlotte, allowing me to come home, get some sleep, and see everyone here.

I am now heading back to the hospital. Please pray. The word is Charlotte is now 3 cm dilated, they have broken her water, and hope is that things are on their way now… We have called the adoptive parents…

It was a long week following the birth of Sofia on Sunday, although she and birthmother Hanna did well with the delivery and post partum.

Hanna left the hospital Monday afternoon. Baby Sofia had to stay in the hospital until the adoption, which was planned to take place on Friday.

Hanna met Monday evening with licensed social worker Peggy Dodds to do assessment paperwork for the adoption, a process required in Ohio to ensure that the birthmother is aware of all the laws concerning adoption and is making the adoption choice of her own free will.

Hanna spent much of the week packing her school books and all her belongings that she had collected while being in Ohio. It was hard to believe she had collected so much in such a short time. Hanna and her mother Sara spent Tuesday and Wednesday packing and taking things to the post office to ship home to Arizona.

Hanna also was able to visit Sofia daily while Sofia was in the hospital. Thursday Hanna and her mother decided to cook dinner for the family, since Hanna was already on the schedule to cook her chicken enchiladas. We had a great family dinner night, with the girls, Kirsten, Hanna and KC?s rendition of ?Wait for You?. [Note: see earlier blog post re: Hanna's last supper].

Late in the evening Thursday a call came from the attorney regarding a small glitch that had developed with the adoption. The problem stemmed from the fact that Hanna was from Arizona, the adoptive parents were from Indiana and the baby was born in Ohio. Somehow no one had noticed this fact until 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, or least no one had seen that it presented any kind of a problem until then.

Let me point out something here. The counseling that Hanna had for three months leading up this point in time was extensive and complete. She knew by this point what she wanted to do, that it was the right thing for her, for Sofia and for the adoptive family, and she was quite ready to do it and move on past this part of her life. She and her mom Sara were supposed to be on a plane out of Cleveland on Friday evening. Now the legal situation was threatening to postpone everything further. We looked at many options, including?

• Give custody of Sofia to an adoption agency and the agency would try and place her in a few months. That option would require Sofia going into foster care at the adoptive parents’ expense. There was no guarantee that the adoptive parents would get to spend time with Sofia, as that would be up to the foster family. The cost to the adoptive family would be $50 a day for the care of the baby as well as about $900 in agency expenses. This also would not guarantee the baby to go with the family that Hanna had selected, spent time with, gotten to know and desired to raise her baby. Hanna would also have to stay in Ohio until at least Wednesday with this plan.
• Hanna just keeps the baby, put her in a babysitting arrangement until the adoption could go through. This would be with one of the relief staff of Harbor House and at no cost to the family and the family would stay with and care for Sofia.

Neither of these options, the best at the time, did not guarantee that Ohio and Indiana were ever going to approve the adoption. After praying about options and seeking the Lord’s guidance on the best outcome for both Hanna and Sofia, the attorney and Karla spoke Friday morning. There was a new option.

• Option 3: Contact an AZ attorney and do an AZ to IN adoption. We were just unsure how that would work, being that we always use an Ohio attorney. However John Huffman was able to get in touch with an attorney in Arizona that gave great direction and guidance. The end plan accomplished everyone?s goals and in a shorter amount of time, and was the most straight-forward legally.

We met with Hanna, her mother and the adoptive parents and explained what had happened, all the twists and turns that had taken place overnight, and what all the options looked like. There were a lot of questions and after about an hour of discussion, everyone agreed that the third option was the best. Even so, when Sara called her husband to explain it, he was immediately skeptical. You have to know Paul, though; he is a Type A individual, he was in Arizona, his family was in Ohio, and now suddenly the whole plan had changed.

Karla spoke at length with Paul and he finally agreed on the new plan, so the attorneys drew up the paperwork to allow the adoptive parents to temporarily care for the baby. Everyone then headed to the hospital where Sofia was released to Hanna, who put the baby in the car seat in the adoptive parents car, and then Hanna got into her car with her mother and headed for the airport. They were able to catch their flight to AZ at 8:15 as scheduled, arriving home after midnight. Sofia and the adoptive parents headed to Indiana to spend the weekend.

Hanna spent Saturday with her father and her friends, explaining to them these past few months and sharing what had gone on in her life.

There was still one very important piece to the adoption that needed to be put in place in Arizona: the birthfather’s signature/approval was still needed. The AZ attorney was scheduled to meet with Hanna and the birthfather to get both their signatures on the paperwork.

Hanna was a bit reluctant to sign her papers first before the birthfather because of the thought that she might sever her rights, only to have him unexpectedly not sign the paperwork and possibly get custody (although paternity had not been established through DNA testing, making it unlikely that scenario could have played out).

Even with Hanna’s concerns, the birthfather showed up and, after an hour-and-a-half of talking and counseling, he signed the papers.

The adoptive mom Julie along with Julie’s mother and Sofia all arrived in Arizona on Monday night where they would meet with the attorney, meet the birthfather, and spend some time with Hanna before returning to Indiana.

On Thursday, Sofia met her birthfather. It was a great meeting. The birthfather (as well as everyone else who sees her) believes Sofia to be the most beautiful baby in the world.

As of today, Hanna and the birthfather, having signed, are done with their part of the adoption. The adoptive mom Julie awaits notice from Indiana that she can return home, and Sofia is well on her way to having a great life, with such a large extended family.

Yes, she was a little early, but Hanna and baby Sofia are doing fine.

Her labor began last Friday night. After not feeling well all day she went to bed early, but was up and down all night with contraction pains, something that wasn?t discovered by housemother Karla until Saturday morning when Hanna told her about the restless night she?d had.

The contractions continued through the day on Saturday, never progressing any quicker than 5-7 minutes apart. Hanna kept up a normal activity level until the evening when she headed to bed early again, this time hoping for a full night?s sleep.

She was back up before 11 pm and so she took a shower, hoping it would relax her. Around 2:30 am Sunday morning Karla timed the contractions at two minutes, so they headed off to the hospital.

A call was put in to Hanna?s parents in Arizona, and Hanna?s mother Sara booked a 6:15 am flight from Phoenix to Cleveland. Karla wondered if she would miss the birth or not.

The adoptive parents were also called but the weather for them was freezing rain and too dangerous to drive in. They decided to wait on the weather and hope it changed for the better. If it did, they had a three-hour drive to make.

At the hospital a nurse checked Hanna. Although the contractions were still close together, Hanna?s body wasn?t ready. Her labor pains had gotten much worse so an epidural was ordered.

By 8 am it was safe enough for Jason and Julie to head out. Hanna had dropped off to sleep, having gotten relief from the numbing epidural. Sara was still somewhere in the skies over the heartland.

Hanna woke up when Jason and Julie arrived around 11:30. Then the call came from Sara that she had touched down at Hopkins, an hour away from the hospital. She was grabbing her luggage, grabbing her rental car and would be on the road by noon. Jason and Julie went to get some lunch while Hanna and Karla waited in the room.

At 1 pm the doctor stopped back to check Hanna. She was complete and ready to push so the doctor broke her water while Karla started making phone calls. Jason and Julie had not returned from lunch yet and the cell phone they had wouldn?t work in the hospital. Sara was reached but she had gotten lost and was still at least 30 minutes away.

The nurses prepped Hanna and got the room ready. Jason and Julie were still not back. Another call was put in to Sara. She was still lost and 20 minutes away.

It was 1:30 and Hanna was trying hard not to push, praying her mother would make it.

At 1:50 pm on Sunday, February 17, 2008, everyone converged. Sara and Julie walked into the hospital room just in time to witness the final arrival, Sofia Nevaeh, who popped out at 2:02 pm. She was healthy and round, weighing in at 8 lb. 4.5 oz. but measuring just 19 inches long.

Hanna got to meet Sofia shortly after the birth. They knew each other, that was apparent. Hanna called her mother Sara over to see her, and then invited Jason, Julie and their son Jax over. Jax, 6, tentatively held his hand out and touched her lightly, then recoiled. A sister was going to take a little getting used to.

Both Hanna and her family believe that Jason and Julie were chosen by God ahead of time to be Sofia?s parents. There have been so many confirmations that to retell them all is a story in and of itself.