Jury Notice

The other day, I went to the mail box and there it was. . .a jury summons.  As I began to curse under my breath, I remembered. . .jury duty helped save Olivia’s life.  How is that, you ask?  Many of you already know the story, but Ryan had jury duty on August 27, 2007. . .the day Olivia and Logan were born.  He had taken off work to take me to the hospital a week prior when I was sent home on bed rest.  (I should have been admitted at that point, but that’s another story.)  The following Monday (August 27th) Ryan was off work for  jury duty.  I urged him to call and get it postponed since his pregnant wife was on bed rest, but we decided there wasn’t going to be any better time.  So, he went and was dismissed around noon.   He picked  up La Galette for lunch, which is one of my favorite places!  That entire day plays over and over like a movie in my head.  Instead of going back into work, we decided to go to the hospital.  It wasn’t because I felt I was in labor or in any immediate danger.  I just wasn’t feeling any better after a week on bedrest and since he just happened to be off work, I thought I’d get checked out again.  Little did I know, I was 2 cm dilated, which would progress to 6 cm dilated and 80% effaced thirty minutes later.  At that point, labor was imminent and three pushes later Olivia was born.  I think about that day a lot. . .well, of course I do, it was the day I became a mother.  But, I think about what would have happened had Ryan been at work that day.  I didn’t feel bad enough to make Ryan take off another day of work to take me to the hospital.  I probably wouldn’t have driven myself, so would I have gone into labor at home?  My children’s chance of survival without a NICU available would have been zero.  But, Ryan just happened to be off that afternoon. . .all thanks to a simple jury summons that he received in the mail.   It’s an annoyance to some, but it forever changed the way I look at life’s little inconveniences.  Of course, I still don’t want to go.