Dear William, Daniel, Catherine, Michael, and Sarah, (and your parents), (and any future descendants and their parents),

Yesterday I wrote to you about Sarah’s birth; and, as I was writing my letter to you, I realized that I still had not written to you about Catherine’s birth (I already wrote about William’s birth; and Daniel’s birth; and Michael’s birth) — so, here we go:

Catherine (also known as Kasia) was born on May 31, 2014. But, she was expected to be born on June 7 — so, what happened? Well, THAT entails a lot of DRAMA!

Since Kasia was expected to be born on or around June 7th, and May 28th was William’s birthday, Babcia Krysia and I decided to take a road trip to Virginia and Washington, D.C.; first to celebrate William’s birthday, and then to attend Kasia’s birth. Because May 28th fell on a Wednesday that year, and because William’s parents both needed to go to work during the week, it was decided that it would be best for us to visit on the weekend. So, on Friday, May 30th, Babcia Krysia and I set out on our trip, intending to arrive at William’s house some time in the afternoon. We intended to take the “scenic” route, along the Eastern shore of Delaware and then the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.

We just crossed the Delaware Memorial Bridge from N.J. to Delaware, when Babcia Krysia’s cell telephone rang — it was Stephanie — she was in the hospital!

Stephanie had been told by her doctors that she should keep an eye on her blood pressure — that morning, it was unusually high. When she checked with her doctor, Stephanie was told to go to the hospital to be evaluated. At that time, Stephanie was intending to go to work, as usual — so, this was not an attractive option. Stephanie sought advice from her friend KalMarie Rawald; who immediately canceled her day (she also had been on her way to work that morning), and reinforced the doctor’s advice — let’s go to the hospital.

1/26/2014: Rysio going off to Afghanistan

During all of this, Rysiu was serving in Afghanistan. The plan had been for Rysio to be back for Kasia’s birth, sometime around June 5th. Secretly, Rysio intended to surprise Stephanie by arriving a few days earlier (he was aiming for June 1st).

When Stephanie and KalMarie arrived at the hospital, Stephanie was evaluated, and was told: we have to admit you, you will be leaving this hospital with a baby. This was NOT what Stephanie expected to hear! She tried to reach Rysiu in Afghanistan to let him know what was happening, but was NOT able to reach him (actually, Rysiu was already on his way OUT of Afghanistan, waiting at the airport for an available flight out). Stephanie called her parents on Long Island, who dropped everything and started their trip to D.C. Then, Stephanie called Babcia Krysia.

At that moment, not knowing what would happen next, Babcia Krysia and I immediately changed our route, away from the Eastern shore of Delaware, straight to D.C. We also notified Marek and Kelly, and we also called Malgosia, to let her know what was happening. Later, we also called Pra-Babcia Irene Kostro and Pra-Babcia Irena Neumann to let them know that their second great-grandchild is about to be born.

When we arrived at the hospital, we visited with Stephanie and KalMarie. Rysio’s picture was next to Stephanie’s bed, and periodically, nurses were checking-up on Stephanie.

Stephanie told us how she kept trying to reach Rysio, but his phone was turned off; and he was nor returning her messages. The doctors wanted to proceed with the birth on Saturday or Sunday; and Stephanie wanted to talk to Rysio before any final decision was made.

[That evening, Babcia Krysia got a call from Rysiu (from Kuwait, where he was switching planes). Apparently, he had been calling Stephanie, but could not reach her — the telephone line was constantly busy. Babcia Krysia gave him a full report of what was happening here at home. Meanwhile, Malgosia decided that she wanted to welcome Kasia personally, so she decided to drive to Washington on Saturday morning.]

At any rate, it was fairly certain that there would be no birth today (Friday). So, Babcia Krysia and I decided to return to our regular schedule, and we proceeded to Williamsburg, to be with William, Marek & Kelly. We got to William’s house before dinner; and then, on Saturday morning, we played with William; went to a street-market; and then we all went to Yorktown.

When we finished lunch, we got a call from Stephanie — things were progressing; Kasia is coming!!!

We changed our plans again; and said good bye to William, Kelly & Marek, and hopped into our car, and headed back to Washington. [We had anticipated that this may happen, so when we got into our car that morning, we took our luggage with us.]

As we were rushing to Washington, we got a telephone call from Malgosia — her car broke down on the highway, as she was passing Baltimore! So, now we were managing TWO crises — a Kasia’s birth in Washington, and Malgosia’s breakdown in Baltimore. I was in charge of operations — driving us to Washington; Babcia Krysia was in charge of communications — keeping in touch with everyone by telephone. In between telephone calls, Babcia Krysia and I would consult on optimum crisis management techniques.

Once Malgosia got her car running again (a “patch” job; not a permanent fix), she decided to abandon her mission (as she was not sure that her car would survive another stop), and drove non-stop back home.

The waiting party

When we arrived at the hospital, we found Stephanie’s parents and Tony Guzman waiting for further developments — we joined them in the wait.

After some time, Melissa Hampe came to us from the Delivery Room, and told us: Catherine Hunt Kostro was born (Saturday, May 31, 2014) at 5:05 pm; she is 20 inches long. [Because of Rysiu’s deployment to Afghanistan, Melissa was Stephanie’s birth-coach; and she had switched-off with KalMarie earlier in the day as Stephanie’s advocate in the hospital.]

Catherine Hunt Kostro

After that, we visited with Stephanie, and met Kasia. Later, Babcia Krysia and I were sent on a “mission” to find Stephanie a “good sandwich”. After we delivered the “good sandwich”, Babcia Krysia stayed with Stephanie at the hospital overnight, and I went to Stephanie’s house — that entailed getting lost several times, so I got to visit all four quadrants of Washington; but, finally I found it! [I tried calling Stephanie and Babcia Krysia, but no one was answering their telephones.]

On Sunday, June 1, I headed back to the hospital (Stephanie’s parents did as well). When I arrived, I saw Rysiu! He made it from Afghanistan, through Kuwait — he landed in Washington early in the morning, where he was picked-up by Michael Wamsganz, who then drove him to the hospital. It was then discovered that Rysiu was not able to reach Stephanie by telephone because, in his excitement, he was dialing HIS OWN telephone number — thus, it was busy each time he called!

Later that day, William came to the hospital with his parents to meet Catherine, the newest member of our family.

You can see all the photos from that very exciting time HERE.

6/1/2014: Catherine with her Parents

Love,

Dziadziuś Paweł.

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